Brand New Day
by Sakya
Summary: Careful what you wish for, because you may get it. Harry always wanted a family and the whole truth, The Dark Lord may just be the one to give it to him. Slash. MM
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**  
Oh, I wish I did own them. Just imagine what I would be able to do... -sigh- well, Since I own nothing but this plot, I would settle for Draco and Harry all tied up and covered in chocolate in my bed as a birthday present.

**Chapter 01.**

Snape was not in a good mood, the day so far had been dreadful and things were not looking up. In a few moments Malfoy and Avery would be arriving to assist him in to taking a particularly large batch of potions to the Dark Lord. Why did Voldemort have to ask him of all people to prepare potions that a first year could do was beyond him.

It was summer for crying out loud. He should not be at Hogwarts brewing potions, he should be at home enjoying a well deserved break from his teaching activities.

A small noise behind him made him stand on his toes. Someone was coming, not apparating, coming from the woods... that was not good, it could be a trap from the Ministry, or from the Dark Lord, one never knows, or just an unlucky wizard who decided to go for a stroll and now would pay the price for walking in to the Death Eaters.

Snape cursed as Trelaway stumbled from the woods. She appeared to be drunk, barely able to stand by herself.

´_Excellent, I can convince her to go someplace else and she will never remember meeting me here.´_

"Sibil, what are you doing here? Been drinking, haven't we? What could you possibly want to gain with this? Is it a desperate attempt to gain a vision?" Snape snarls at her, hoping to scare her enough to send her away as soon as possible.

"Snape, hahaha, Snape, oh, Snape... so alone, alone in the woods." Giggles Trelaway hugging a tree to keep herself steady "they talk you know, shh, shh, listen... they tell me secrets, oh, secrets, so many secrets, they were not talking to me, I had to sneak, I'm very sneaky now, hide, so they speak to me".

Snape sighs, this may take longer than he though. "yes, well, lovely to know, why don't you go listen to what the castle has to say to you, hummm?"

"No, not there, no, no" She seems to be scare at the idea.

Snape raises a brow intrigued, what was that about?.

"They don't tell me secrets there, they take the secrets away from me, no whispers, no dreams, no, not there, just the foul taste and mist, the mist... I can't see there, not there... I can see here... yes, I can see... oh, you are not alone anymore," Trelaway is suddenly serious, almost standing strait while still holding the three to balance herself, "the delivers of fear have arrived".

Just when his interest was beginning to pick up he hears two loud cracks and turns around to see two figures clad as Death Eaters standing near.

"What have we here?" Snape recognises Avery's voice. "Did you decide to bring the entertainment as well, old friend?"

"Damn it, you idiot, keep your mouth shut. She is the so called teacher of divination at Hogwarts and got here by accident. They will be expecting her back at Hogwarts any moment now. We will have to obliviate her and send her in her way, fast, before we are too late to see... to the meeting." Snapes snaps at the hooded figure.

"I'll do it, get moving with the potions" says the second figure – Malfoy, Snape knows that voice all to well to be mistaken.

Malfoy grabs Trelaway by her arm and points his wand at her, but before he utters the spell, Trelaway begins to talk in a strange deep voice, her eyes unfocused and her aura glowing with unsuspected power.

"Angel of no faith, bringer of pain, you who shad the blood of so many... your blood will keep its flow through time, a bright path of light for your blood, so much power, pleasure and pain, all your dreams within the grasp of your hand. And the biggest one of all... yes... you need not to fear, your family will not been forgotten and the future has a bright spot for the Malfoys. The balance of power is about to be tipped by the flow of life, flow of blood... The path of blood, take care of the blood, don't turn your back. Blood and snakes are dancing in my mind..." Trelaway faints in Malfoys arms.

The three man were stunned with what they heard. The amount of magic dancing around them left no room for doubt, that was a real vision. Snapes curses under his breath, he knows that nothing short of a miracle will save Trelaway now. The Dark Lord has been looking for a seer for too long and the damn woman had to come here of all places and have a vision, now, of all times.

Malfoy is frozen in shock, not three hours ago he had used those very same words while talking to his wife expressing his fear that the Malfoy line would end and be forgotten, disappear in the heat of the war and leave no heirs to carry on the name. It was too late to change sides now and things were not looking good for their side, and all of the sudden this woman coming out of nowhere, this fraud, according to Draco and Snape... How as that even possible?

There was really nothing left to say, they all knew how hard Voldemort was looking for a seer, leaving her behind was not even an option. Gathering everything they appareted away. Trelaway firmly held in Malfoy's arms.

**Chapter 02** – The Dark Lord

The apparition point was a small clearing in the woods. Snape briefly wondered if the surrounding darkness would provide enough protection to attempt a rescue. A movement cought in the corner of his eyes convinced him of the opposite. Two masked figures came in the clearing already pointing their wands at the new arrivals.

"Who goes there?"

"Faithful servants of our lord." Announced Avery, as the three of them pulled their sleeves to show their marks. Trelaway fell in the ground giggling.

"and what about her?" asked one of the apparition point guards.

"Oh, her" said Avery already picking up one of the crates with potions "just someone our lord might like to meet"

"Did you check her for tracking spells?"

"Not really" said Lucius in his usual bored tone.

"Oh! Great, I will lead a raid from the ministry strait in to the presence of our lord. We really should stop this nonsense before it goes too far. She is a teacher at Hogwarts, the old fool will be keeping tabs on her, you know" Snape said in hopes that it would work on everybody's fear of the Dark Lord and of being discovered by the ministry.

"Not necessarily. You, after all, are here, are you not, dear friend?" Lucius said somewhat amused "Gentlemen, if you would be so kind..." he added gesturing the giggling woman on the ground.

One of the guards approaches Trelaway and casts a few spells.

"Hum... very interesting. There are no tracking spells, but there seems to be a very powerful spell tempering with her magic... quite old too I believe"

"Yes, yes, lovely, but this is becoming very tiresome and I am afraid we are being expected." snapped Lucius.

Not wanting to miss any changes that presented themselves to get the woman out of there, Snape made sure he was the one holding her on the last part of the journey. Too bad the tracking spell routine didn't work but maybe something else would come along and he would be spare of having to kill her fast to save her from suffering too much.

Holding Trelaway close, Snape began to make his way to where the meeting was being held.

"Severus, oh, Severus. You naughty dog... full of secrets, so full of secrets aren't you? Master of secrets and truth untold. Secret life... secret mask... secret loyalty... so many shining secrets... shining in the dark, I can see them all. Even the ones that shy no more."

´_Uh-oh´_ Though Snape ´_Now it s not the time, you silly cow. Shut up already or we are both dead. How in hell I am going to get this woman back to Dumbledore? and Merlin help if she really can see for real, this will be a whole new world of trouble for...´_ but his lines of though were cut short by Trelaway s words.

"He did hurt you too, but that is a secret that shies no more. Is a secret secret. Not even you know, he stole your secret from you. He stole your heart and your memory of that heart... poor Severus, your heart is bleeding and you don t even know why... but I'll tell you: Its because he tore your heart apart."

"What did you say?"

"Secret, secret. You have so many secrets. Don't you get tired of keep them all? yes, you do. That is why you forgot to add the salamander eye..." babbled Trelaway holding and caressing Snape's right hand, where a few hours earlier a nasty burn could be seen after a caldron explosion that Snape only now could see how it came to past.

Snape's mind was running a thousand miles per hour, could she be the real thing? But why now? After so many years being the laughing stock of the school. Why now? Lost in this thoughts he never realised his short journey had come to an end and before he could came up with any kind of plan not to bring Trelaway in to the Dark Lords presence there was the man... standing not six feet way from him.

"Well, gentlemen, I'm glad you finally decide to join us in this fine evening. I do hope I haven't spoiled any other plans you may had..." said the Dark Lord ironically upon their arrival.

"Our apologies, my lord" said Malfoy knelling before the Dark Lord's throne "but something came up and we thought you would be most pleased if we brought it to your attention." He made a quick gesture for Avery to bring Trelaway forward, she still seamed to be very dizzy and pretty out of it.

"And why would I be interested on this poor excuse of a witch?" asked Voldemort with a dangerous gleam in his eyes.

"She is not even attractive!" Bellatrix said approaching from the side and holding Trelaway by the hair to look at her face.

´_Oh, yes´_ Though Snape ´_Trust Bellatrix to go out of her way to make sure no other woman gets anywhere near the Dark Lord. Was she ever faithful to her husband?´_

"What a poor judgement of our Lord's taste the three of you have... to present him with this..."

Bellatrix was cut off. Trelaway suddenly snapped her head strait, looking her in the eyes and speaking with a strange and deep voice.

"Your song has change, little bird, but I still can see your feathers. Sing some more, little bird, and the translation will became clear. "

Bellatrix backs up screaming at the top of her lungs. "No, not you, not again, I've killed you. "

She draws her wand taking aim at Trelaway but her wand suddenly flies out of her hand landing at Voldemort's feet.

"And what is the meaning of this?" he asks.

"My lord. I had reason to believe this woman is a seer, but now I see she is merely mad. I'll get her out of here." Said Snape in one last desperate attempt.

"No, wait. I do sense power in her. Seer's power, but is all out of control. Her power seems to be out of control. What happened to her?" He demanded.

"We don't know, my lord. We found her wandering through the woods near Hogwarts. The guards at the apparition point however, noticed a powerful spell tampering with her powers." Added Lucius.

"A spell, you say?" Asked the Dark Lord becoming even more intrigued by the babbling witch before him. "Let me take a look at that."

Voldemort raised his wand and started to cast spell after spell. Trelaway fell shaking and screaming while several bands of bright colours appeared around her and lingered for a moment before shattering.

"Now, child, tell me what that old fool Dumbledore has hidden away in that pretty little head of yours" Said the Dark Lord in a voice that was almost gentle.

Snape shivered, he knew that voice all too well, that was the voice the Dark Lord used when he was seconds ways from using a obscene amount of violence. Behind him Snape heard Bellatrix begin to giggle.

´_This one likes violence a little too much for anybody's good, and what does Voldemort means by Dumbledore hiding something inside Trelaways head, she doesn't even have enough brains to assimilate information in the first place, let along hide it away!´_

Meanwhile, Trelaway was still shaking and crying.

"No, no, he will hurt me again, he will find me and hurt me..."

"No, child, no one will find you here. You will be safe by my side. Tell me what he has been hiding" insisted Voldemort.

"No... please... no" she sobbed quietly.

"It's alright, child, here, take my hand and let me help you to your feet" said Voldemort still using his gentle voice, he moved close to the fallen witch holding out his hand. Trelaway hesitated for a moment and then took it.

As soon as she was standing, Voldemort grabbed her firmly, forcing her to look him in the eyes.

´_legitimency´_ Though Snape ´_he is just going to read her mind, Merlin. I hope she doesn't know about me.´_

The Dark Lord held Trelaway for a few minutes before he let her go. He had a large grin in his face.

"Well, our good headmaster has been keeping the goods to himself, so it seems. A true seer! This," he said holding Trelaway's chin so she had to keep her face up "is going to be very interesting."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 03** – The Bet

Snape shivered, he always hated to see people he knew be tortured and killed. Trelaway, although he never had much contact with the woman, was someone he knew. Snape cursed again for having to be at this meeting tonight.

Lord Voldemort released Trelaway's face and she fell again, too weak to hold herself. Whatever spell the Dark Lord had cast on her seemed to have take a lot of her energy and strength way. Bellatrix came swiftly to her master's side and tried to snatch his attention from the other witch.

"Snape" Called the Dark Lord and Snape hurried to bow in front of him. "Apparently the old fool had her drugged for quite some time, her memories are a mess. I want you to find out what he gave to her and take the necessary counter measures to assure I have free access to everything she knows"

"Yes, my lord" said Snape hurring Trelaway way from the meeting and in to his lab, ´_yes, that's exactly the opportunity I need to find out what Dumbledore has been up to with her and perhaps even get her out of here depending on what I find.´_

Snape begun to work with haste, knowing that his findings would only remain safe for a short amount of time before the Dark Lord demanded a report. If he wanted to find out something that he could use, he better be fast.

Running a few tests on Trelaway, Snape soon discovered a trace of a hallucinogen substance.

´_that's odd´_ he though ´_why would Dumbledore keep her drugged?_´

Approaching Trelaway to collect a new sample of blood Snape was surprised to hear her voice clear and calm.

"You never saw it coming"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Me, Dumbledore, the drug you just found in my blood... you never saw it coming. That's why it bothers you so much, you are a spy, you see things coming a mile way but you missed this one and now you don't know where you stand anymore, your shining leader has done something you wield as wrong and the side of the light doesn't do 'wrong'". She said matter-of-factly.

Snapes looks around quickly, making sure no one heard her say that he was a spy and Dumbledore was his 'leader'.

"Blasted woman, keep quiet, you are going to get me... us killed"

Trelaway just laughed, making Snape wonder if she was any less crazy that he always though she was.

"Don't worry, dear Severus, I see many years ahead of you. I see happiness too. Family, friends, recognition... all the things you never though you would get, they are all waiting for you."

"One of your 'visions', I presume." Said Snape, disdain dripping from his mouth. "Although I though death omens were you favourite".

Trelaway just laughed again.

"No, not mine, his" her eyes began to shine with a barely controlled rage "he kept me as his faithful dog. A pet monkey trained to vomit faux prophecies and ridiculous warnings. It was actually quite a refreshing surprise to be out of his grip".

"Listen to me very carefully, you are delusional. It's only the side effect of the spells. You will fell better once we return..."

"No, Snape. I'm not, you are the one who is mistaken... and I can prove it to you" Said Trelaway holding his hand with a stronger grip than Snape had giving her credit for.

"Let go of me"

"Your password is 'blood heritage', your favourite potion is the sleeping draught, because of the faces that people do when they take it..."

"You could easily find out any of those things at Hogwarts..."

"... and you have loved and you have lost" she added as if he never had spoken.

"She left me" he said painfully.

"She was taken from you. You saw it happen, but he took the memory from you..." Snape could not believe Trelaway's words "there is much more I can tell you on this matter. You see, legitimens is the spell that mimics, very poorly I might add, part of the seer's gift. We can see the past and the future, yes, but we also can see peoples minds, I know your mind better than you, Severus, and I have a proposition to make. Care to hear me out?"

"Why should I not just kill you right know?"

"Because I can tell you everything Dumbledore has hidden from you... and believe when I say this, it's quite a lot" Trelaway said rising to her feet and looking him strait in to his eyes.

"I have no reason to believe you, or trust you, for that matter... and even if you do know something, unlikely as it may be, why tell me? What is there for you to gain with this attitude?"

"Think, Severus, Think" Said Trelaway walking around Snape, she was starting to look like a predator, which was very out of character for her, who as always the clumsy thick glassed fraud of a teacher who pretended to be good at teaching divination to the children.

"I just woke up at the Dark Lord's feet after a 20 year slumber. I was heavily drugged by a man a regarded with respect, he destroyed my life, my reputation, everything... and even worse, he messed with my prophecies. Those are sacred to me."

"You claim he destroyed your life and yet say that messing with some..." Snape quickly chose a better word when he saw the look in her eyes. You don't hang around Bellatrix for as long as he had without realising that is a suicide to go against a woman looking at you like that. "prophecy, was the worse thing he did?"

"A seer is connected to the flux of time and the destiny of men. To tamper with a prophecy is to tamper with the very meaning of a seer's life. It is to degrade her. You change what was said and you mess with the destinies of all of those involved. You set their destinies stray. You disrupt magic itself."

"Yes, I can see how that would be a problem" Snape said with a smirk.

"You still don't believe me" it was not a question. "allow me to prove it to you"

"why?"

"Because I can, because I will take my revenge on Dumbledore though you and though others"

´_Uh-oh, this does not sound good´_

"Don't be afraid" Trelaway sensed his fears and made sure to put him at easy "my revenge will be sweet, for you and the others, that is, I'm afraid Dumbledore will be quite mad, but he will never know it was me..." she added with a sweet smile on her face.

"And how is that?"

"Well, Dumbledore got in the way of a lot of people's lives. He took away happiness not only from you but from many others, as well as he delivered happiness to those who were not meant to have it in the first place. He decided to play god and used my prophecies to do so. Well, that only makes it fair game for me to give destiny a push from the other side and, who knows, maybe it will flow back in to its natural course".

"You are not convincing me"

"And how about this. I'll tell you where the prove is. All you have to do is go to the school and get it... if what you find there is not enough to convince you, I will follow you wherever you want me to, but if it is enough, than you will have to you bow before me in from of all the Dark Lord's followers and publicly apologise for ever doubting my abilities"

"It's a bet then?"

"Oh, yes. And just for good measure I'll give you my word as a witch that I'll not let anyone know your secrets"

"You give me your word as a witch? Just like that? No strings attached?"

"None what so ever"

Snape carefully weighed his options. She was not likely to come with him, even if he could get her out of there. Her word as a witch bounded her to his secrets, not that it would stop Voldemort, but it was insurance.

"Still... why?"

"You are one of those whose happiness has been stolen, by making you happy now I get to foil Dumbledore's schemes and bring your destiny to a path closer of the one it should have taken. Everybody wins. Destiny is corrected, I get revenge and you get back something that was stolen from you"

"I see"

"No, you don't. That will take some time. Right now all I ask are a few hours of your time, enough to go back to the school grounds, get the evidence and come back... and also, I need a promise.

"A promise?"

"Don't take revenge in your hands just yet"

"Hum?"

"When you find what I'm sending you to get. When you see what it is and realise what I'm saying. Don't take revenge in to your own hands. Came back and I promise you will not regret, It will only make your revenge even more complete. Do I have your word as a wizard?"

´_She seems dead serious about this. Either she is very mad and I am doomed or she is the real thing and Merlin have mercy on those upon she exacts her revenge´_

"You have my word. Now tell me where in Hogwarts do I have to go"

**Chapter 04** – The Knowledge

Snape hurried through the hallways of Hogwarts, thanking every deity he could remember for Dumbledore absence. He would not have the ability to explain himself at the moment, by all means he should have brought that bloody woman back with him.

What kind of madness had possessed him to accept those stupid terms? And who exactly was that woman? She was nothing like the Trelaway he could remember gliding around the school in her permanent state of euphoria.

Lost in his thoughts he came to halt in front of a solid wall.

_Let's see then. What did she say? Oh! Yes´_ he got his wand and tapped in the bricks in front of him in the order Trelaway had told him to. ´_I'm making a bigger fool out of me by the minute. This has got to be some elaborate joke of some sort´_

Snape muttered to himself even though he knew it was very unlikely to be any sort of joke.

The wall folded within itself and a doorway came in to view. It led in to a small room covered with shelves. Snape's eyes grew wide, there carefully store upon the shelves were dozens of pensieves. He walked in muttering a lumus spell and notice that there were name tags attached to each pensieve. It didn't take very long for him to find a few with his name.

_´At least the old man is organised. Good thing he kept them all together´_ he though as he picked the first one to see what this as all about.

--------

A couple of hours later a very pale and shaken Severus Snape emerged from the room. His feet were not fast enough to carry him out of Hogwarts and beyond the apparition wards. He made the whole journey in record speed and fell on his knees in front of Trelaway.

"I'm sorry. I'll never doubt your power again, tell me what you need of me".

"Tell me, dear, what did you see?"

"Don't you know?"

"What I see are signs, spectral images... I learn what has to be done or how it needs to be done... but is not always clear. I'll tell you what I know, then you'll tell me what you saw"

"Go on..."

"The proofs of the crimes committed against many people were in that place. A place which held the dark deeds of Dumbledore, where your pain was stored, there was a piece of you there and the foundation stone of our alliance, metaphorically speaking. So what was there, in those memory boxes? That much I can see" she answered the unspoken question Snape showed in his face.

"Memories, as you said. So many of them... I loved once and she loved me back. We had a beautiful story together... stolen from us... Sibil, she was pregnant!" Snape had tears running from his eyes now. He laid his head on her lap, still kneeling in front of her, and let the tears flow as he remembered the one he loved, the one that Dumbledore took way from him... Lily Evans, and their child... Merlin, Harry! The brat was his child! But why? "why?"

"Oh! To best serve his plan, to ensure your coming here, becoming a spy. A happy man with a muggle-born wife and a child would not do, isn't that right?" Said Trelaway holding his chin up so she could dry his tears "but there is so much more... and I don't know everything yet. That is way I need your help. I can feel the fates of so many changing, shifting as we speak, any prediction now has every possibility of being proven wrong, there is no telling of the future just now, for we just changed it. We are now at a very delicate and dangerous moment, anything could go wrong. Will you help me?"

"I need to be with my son"

"And you will be, but not now, now you would only get your memory stolen again and would be right back where you were before you met me, alone in the woods..."

"metaphorically speaking" Snape finished.

"of course"

Snape felt defeated. A pawn in a game he knew nothing of the rules, just when he though he could see the end of the tunnel, some one came and showed him it was all a game of mirrors and he was now even more lost than before. He could not trust the Dark Lord, that had been obvious for some time, and know he learns he could not trust Dumbledore either... and what about Trelaway, could he trust her? Could he trust any of it?

"You need more proof". Once again it was not a question. "You are a potion master, brew a potion, take his blood, make your own proof"

"I will"

At the moment the conversation was cut short by the arrival of a Death Eater. "The Dark Lord has sent for you two"

"Very well" said Snape regaining his wits "lead the way". He followed the man out with Trelaway close behind him.

"Well" the Dark Lord said "Severus, I wish to hear your report on the seer"

Snape knelt in front of the Dark Lord considering how to go about this business, when a voice echoed trough out the meeting and every single person in the room held still as Trelaway spoke, holding out her hand to Voldemort.

"The one who will reign in the dark has been mislead,  
He seeks in the future what can be only found in the past,  
In the blood of your family is where immortality rests"

The Dark Lord got up and approached her, reaching for her hand.

"But be ware of blood shed for family's blood is also red,  
The most wanted prize is already in your hands, be aware,  
careful where you tread, for magic..."

Trelaway was suddenly knocked sideways, on top of her stood Bellatrix with a club in her hands.

"You don't touch him, whore." She yelled, her eyes shining with madness.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, woman?" Screamed the Dark Lord.

"No woman touches my lord." Said Bellatrix putting on a sweet face for the Dark Lord.

"Who touches me or who I touch is a matter of my choosing, not yours. Don't you dare forget who is the master and who is the dog. _Crucio_"

Bellatrix fell back screaming as Trelaway set up slowly on the ground, looking around as if trying to understand what was going on. Snape hurried to her side and aided her to stand up.

"Continue" ordered the Dark Lord to Trelaway.

"Continue?" She looked lost.

"My lord, if I may" said Snape.

"What?" the Dark Lord snapped.

"She cannot continue. A prophecy cannot be controlled or delivered at a desired moment. It has a mind of its own and..." Snape could see the anger building up inside the Dark Lord.

_´Oh! Merlin, this is going to hurt´_ he saw the Dark Lord start to raise his wand when a hand held his arm.

"Don't" said Trelaway "He is right. The prophecy has to be spoken at its own time, no one can change that" The Dark Lord didn't looked pleased, his hand held his wand more firmly.

"But spare the pain, and I'll tell you what the prophecy is about"

"You know what is says then?" Asked a more amused Dark Lord.

"Not it's exact terms. I should have been allowed to speak the whole prophecy for that, but I can... sense, what it was about."

"Go on, child, enlighten me"

"As long as you have a descendent in the wizarding world, you'll live".

"A descendent in the..." Voldemort suddenly became very agitated. "Yes, yes, I see... so that is what that blasted book meant! Snape, I need a potion to help me impregnate a woman".

"Of course, my lord, I just need a sample of your seed..."

"What?"

"Your... seed, my lord"

"He can't give it to you" Trelaway cut in. "He has none left. His body has flaws."

Voldemort looked at her as if deciding how long he would hold her under a crucio spell but just a fraction of second before he cast the spell he decided against it. For her to know he could not breed, she must have some kind of power and if she was a true seer he would need her sane enough to make sense of the blasted prophecies Bellatrix eventually allowed her to deliver. He threw another one curse at Bellatrix who was still on the ground and started to leave the room.

"There is something else you might want to know" Trelaway added.

"Make it fast and make it good, woman, I'm at the end of my patience with you".

"I do see something. The details are lost to me, but you do have a child, a user of magic. A child that carries your blood"

"Impossible, I've known"

"No, she ran. You took the mother of your child against her will and she ran from you, but she conceived a child that night. She was a squib"

"And the child survived?"

"You came back didn't you? By all means you should be dead, but you're here. That can only mean that your blood still flows in the wizarding community."

"And how do you suppose I find this child of mine?"

"The woman... she cought your attention on a muggle site... she was buying something... something colourful... flowers, your mother's favourite flowers... and her parents were with her, her mother was a witch..." Trelaway was staring in to the night air as if seeing the scene taking place right before her, but the Dark Lord remembered something by then.

"and her father was a muggle. Yes, I remember that one, Merlin, It was almost40 years ago!"

"I can't see her clearly, she has departed from this world and I do see that she had a child, but I can't see past that".

"Well, It doesn't matter. I remember something that will help me find her. Malfoy!" Called out Voldemort summoning a piece of parchment and a quill.

"Yes, my lord" Malfoy answered with a bow.

"Go to this place and find a muggle police station near by" said Voldemort writing a few words down. "Bribe, kill, make up a story, whatever it takes, get me all the rape reports they have from this period of time. One of those women had my child and the time has came for daddy to go home!" his laughter filled the room bringing chills to everyone. Snape couldn't help noticing that Trelaway was the only one not shivering, she had a sly smile on her face.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 05**

**  
**Malfoy, Zabiny e Avery returned to the Dark Lord's presence clad in muggle clothes. Malfoy was wearing a gray Armani suit with his long blond hair tied at the nap of his neck. Zabini looking very imposing in his dark suit, with white shirt and deep blue tie. Avery didn't hide the fact that he was the muscles of the trio with black denim, black button down shirt and black leather jacket. The three man bowed in front of the Dark Lord before apparating away.

_´Oh, joy! Diplomacy, Threat and Pain are out to play again´_ mused Snape.

"Severus" Called the Dark Lord.

"My lord"

"I need you back on Hogwarts. Dumbledore must not find out about this... most pleasant, turn of events . Do what you want with your time before the school term begins, but do not let him even consider the possibility of me having his seer"

"As you wish, my lord" answered Snape. He knew he would have no problem carrying on his orders, the last thing he wanted was for Dumbledore to get suspicious now, or the Dark Lord for that matter, he would have to find a way to get his son out of this mess. Allowing him to go in to battle against the mad wizard was not something he was about to let happen, with one last look at Trelaway left the meeting.

Trelaway was still smiling and nodded at him, indicating that all was well. He wasn't too trilled with the idea of leaving her within Bellatrix reach, but he would have to let things be for a while and concentrate on the bigger problem he had in hand: getting his son back and out of harms way.

His son! Severus Snape has a son! He wanted to scream from the top of the Astronomy Tower, but that would also have to wait.

Severus Snape was a man well known for three things: His foul deminor, his cool under pressure and his calculating nature. All his attitudes were calculated, he had learned his lesson from the mistakes of his youth and this was not the time to go rushing in like a foolish Gryffindor. No, now was the time to watch, learn and, only after he had all the facts, to finally act.

Snape went back to his potions room, he had things to prepare for the beginning of the school year, when he would be reunited with his son.

----------

"Come on, mate. Before anybody sees us!" Ron said, his voice just above a whisper.

"Let me just get Hedwig" answered Harry going back up stairs and running back seconds later holding his beautiful white owl in his arms.

"Why don't you just let her fly?" asked Ron.

"Uncle Vernon hurt her, he hit her with Dudley's stick" and seeing the puzzled look on Ron's face he continue "it's this thing from his school, it's suppose to teach you something about life or whatever, basically, It hurts."

"Oh" said Ron, clearly not understanding.

They ran to the sidewalk and raised the wand hand, calling the knight bus.

"I'll tell you, mate, this knight bus is seriously overrated, don't think I'll be too anxious to ride it again so soon". Harry looked at Ron, he did look a little green while waiting for the bus.

"Don't worry, Ron. It will be over soon" Harry said smiling. He could not believe, his friend had came all to way to Surrey to help him escape his muggle family all because he failed to answer the letters he received three times in a row. The order was yet to act and his friend had already come to take him away, great protection they were. Dumbledore was probably giving his "it's all for the best" speech as he stood there waiting for the bus.

The purple bus was there in a second with a loud bang. They paid and went inside, settling in for the bumping ride ahead.

"I can't tell you how happy I am to see you, Ron. I though I was hallucinating when I saw you standing there" said Harry with a smile throwing himself in the bed besides the one Ron was occupying. "I thought they had finally broken me." He added in a low voice.

"How bad was it, Harry?" asked Ron turning to look at him.

"It was worse that it has ever been. Before they called me a freak and treated me worse than a Malfoy house elf, but now... even with the order seeing me off at the station or maybe because of it. It was like uncle Vernon finally realized I really had someone to back me up and no matter what he did I would still be a wizard... and the fact that next year I would be able to do magic in the house didn't help either. I guess he was afraid I would turn all of them in to toads or bats. He went out of his way to beat magic out of me 'before it was too late', like he said". Harry couldn't help the sadness that came over him, he felt cold and wrapped his arms around himself. "Ron, for a moment there I didn't believe I was going to see Hogwarts again, Thanks for coming".

"I'll never abandon you, Harry" said Ron and Harry felt the mattress shift under Ron's weight as he laid next to him, he turned to look at Ron's face.

Ron reached Harry's forehead and brushed way a few locks of his hair and Harry felt his mouth dry. Ron kept looking him strait in his eyes, not saying anything, just laying there and touching his hair gently. Harry was the one who moved, covering the last few inches towards Ron, his hand resting on Ron's waist, not pulling him closer but letting him decide to accept the next move or not and finally their lips met. It was a soft touch, nothing more than that, just a touch, but Harry's heart went wild in his chest and the world ceased to exist.

He could now feel Ron's hand slowly moving on his back, gently pulling him, Ron moving his whole body closer, deepening the kiss. A soft tongue touched Harry's lower lip, begging entrance, going in, exploring as if time had stood still. Each touch felt like a healing charm erasing bruises, hard words, mean looks and replacing the cold Harry felt with a warm tingling feeling, like sun light. Yes, that's what Ron felt like, sunshine.

Ron pulled back a little, his arm still around Harry.

"Are you ok with this?" he asked, his voice laced with concern.

"Yes" Harry smiled "I'm ok with this" that was everything he wanted in the world, to be wrapped in loving arms, feeling sheltered and warm. He had though about it, being with Ron, when he first learned he also liked guys, but had pushed the thoughts away on the account of their friendship. He valued it too much to risk it, but now Ron felt for him too and that made it alright. Harry was very ok with this.

They remained wrapped in each other's arms for the rest of the trip to Diagon Alley. They got a room in the Leaky Cauldron and sent an owl to Mrs. Weasley for the order to come and pick them up. They knew someone would be there in a matter of minutes, which left them very little time alone, so they just held each other in the room's double bed. Harry's head resting on Ron's shoulder feeling calm and protected for the first time in a long time.

A knock on the door wake Harry up. He and Ron exchanged glances, getting up and drawing their wands.

"Yes?" said Ron, gesturing for Harry to remain quiet.

"Ron? It's us" Remus' voice came through the door. Ron quickly opened the door, letting Remus and Tonks in.

"Gods, Harry, Don't do that anymore. Do you know how terrified I was when I got to your relatives' house?" said Remus pulling Harry in a tight hug. "I though I lost you too".

"You went there? Why?" asked Harry confused.

"When your letters stopped coming, Dumbledore send us there to check on you and pick you up, but when we got there you were gone. Don't do that again, do you hear me?" Remus had tears in his eyes and kept hugging Harry all the time.

Harry's heart was about to burst. Dumbledore had sent for him, the order went to pick him up, his best friend... or his boyfriend (he would have to talk to Ron about that) did go to pick him up and he was getting more hugs tonight than ever before. They really cared!

"We really should get going" said Tonks after hugging Harry "We better take you to a safer place than a public inn in the middle of London".

"Yes, you're right" said Remus picking some of Harry's stuff. "It is best to hurry now".

They walked quickly in the another room, where Tom already had a fireplace lit for them to floo out of there.

Harry arrived at Grimmaud 12 only to find himself pulled in another hug.

"Oh, my god, Harry, you are skin and bones! Don't those people ever feed you? No worries, dear, we'll have you fixed up in no time". Mrs. Weasley held him for a long time before pulling away.

After that things kind of became a blur. Harry vaguely remembered Fred's, George's and Ginny's hellos. Hermione was also there and gave him and Ron a hug before Mrs. Weasley called them all for dinner. The conversation around the table was cheerful while everybody brought Harry up to date with the latest events. Ron's arm gently resting on Harry's waist. The twins noticed it right way.

"Is there something you forgot to mention, Roniskies?" asked... the twin on the right.

"No, Fred, my boyfriend and I have nothing to say" said Ron pulling Harry closer in to his chest before turning to Harry with a smile on his face "or do we, love?"

"No, nothing comes to mind" mocked Harry leaning in to the embrace.

"awww..." the girls said, and the whole table exploded in laughter.

Molly Weasley look over the table smiling. Not all of her children were there, Charlie and Bill were both way because of their work and Percy... well, Percy was simply not there anymore, her smile faded away a little as she remembered her third son.

´_No, not now´_ she though ´_no time for that now´_

She looked at the children gathered around the table. Her children. They were all happy and whole, enjoying the time they had together, doing their very best to ignore the up coming war for a few moments.

´_No, now is the time for a little happiness. Merlin knows we are in dire need of those.´_

**Chapter 06**

The day was like every other, the sky was grey and the promise of rain hung over the city all morning. Sargent Green was doing the most boring job possible at the station, filling out paper work. He hated paper work, but it had to be done sometime, so he did like every other dull job he had to do, all at once getting over with it as soon as possible and not thinking to much about it. That is why he was not very pleased with the interruption.

"Would you repeat that, please?" he asked for the second time to the man in sitting across his desk. He hated those types, old money by the looks of it, moving around like he owned the world, coming down to HIS desk and asking strange questions about some bloke who got fresh with a dame some years ago.

"As I already said, Mr... Green..." said the brunet man while the blond one next to him only smirked.

"Sargent"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'm Sargent Green" and he better show him some respect now.

"Of course, my mistake, Sargent Green. It's very important that I see the report on all the rape incidents that took place during this particular period of time."

"Why?"

"Because, I represent a person who is very interested in the particular details of one of such incidents."

"Fine, fine, fill out this form in triple and submit it to the front desk, an officer will check the formalities and inform you if you can or can not receive access to the files you desire, than..."

"Oh, for Merlin's beard!" Shouted the blond one jumping to his feet and pulling a short stick from inside his suit. "IMPERIO" and Sargent Green lost track of the rest of the day. He blinked and it was already night fall and another was officer knocking on his door.

"Green, Aren't you going home?"

"Oh, my! Look at the time, I tell you, this paper really makes you doze off." He said getting up to go home and not thinking on the matter anymore. It would be a few months before anyone notice that a few old files were missing never to be found again.

----------

Avery and Zabini were sitting at the table in the hotel suite looking through the police files while Malfoy was taking a bath. There were six incidents. One of the perpetraitors was killed a week later on a robbery, two of the man were caught on the act and did time in jail and one of them was black. That left only two possibilities: Sarah Michaels and Daisy Mckinlay. Both maiden names, not that it would be a problem.

It took them three days to find Sarah Michaels. She was a nice petite lady who lived in a flat not far from the hospital where she had worked as a nurse her whole life. A very nice and lonely lady who had never been a mother in her life. She received them for tea and biscuits and they chatted for a while before they had to go. She though they were really nice man.

Daisy Mckinlay was not her real name. It took them a few days to find that out. She gave the police a false sur name to avoid any scandals, but her mother had let her name slip in the hospital and they wrote it down. Apparently she was spending a few days with the parents because she had a fight with her husband and was considering not going back, but she went back eventually. It was all very neatly written down in the very neat hospital report the doctors would never notice missing.

She went back because of her unborn child.

It took only a few hours drive in a very comfortable muggle car for them to arrive at the old address written in the file. Where they found a very well kept muggle neighbourhood full of nice old ladies ready to share their afternoon tea with three very polite gentlemen who happen to be looking for an old friend who lived there.

"Oh, of course I remember that family. Lovely family, such good children. It was a shame they moved away, but that's life. The children grow, they get marry and move away"

"Yes, a terrible shame" said Malfoy "tell me, Mrs. March, you wouldn't happen to have an address for these children. Would you?" he said with his most charming smile, making the old lady blush a little.

"Oh, I think I just might. Yes, the oldest one gave me her address when Daisy died." She went to her desk where a few address books where neatly placed in a row. "Yes, here it is. Let me copied down for you. It is not that far, you know, really not that far" she handed a card where she had written the address.

"Thank you, you're too kind" and they left waiving good bye.

----------

"I'm getting sick of being nice to muggles. We should have the permission to at the very least torture a few of them" growled Avery.

"No, our lord wants this to be as quiet as possible. We already took to many chances with that policeman"

"He was asking for it, I merely oblige" answered Malfoy ironically.

The new address was actually very close by, in a few minutes they pulled up in from of a house. They looked up and down the street with disgust; every house was exactly identical to the others with minor differences in the yards.

"This people are definitelymuggles" said Zabini

"Zabini, you do have the most amazing ability to state the obvious" smirked Malfoy.

"Let's get this over with, if this is the wrong child we just get the address of the others and get out of here" Avery was really and the end of his patience.

They walked up to the house and knocked at the door. They heard steps coming closer and a skinny woman with a face that reminded them of a horse and the longest neck they had ever seen opened the door.

"Hello, may I help you?"

"Hello" Said Malfoy smiling "I'm doctor Malfoy and this are my colleagues Dr. Avery and Dr. Zabini. We are conducting a research on the present condition of a few old patients that have been attended in our hospital and were wondering if we could ask you a few questions?"

She looked at them taking in the expensive clothes and the luxury car parked on the street before she smile stepping aside to let them in.

"Of course. I'll be glad to help"

The house was spotless clean. It was so unnatural that was almost sickening. They went into the living room where she made them sit on the flowery couches before offering some tea.

"So, How can I help your research?" she asked with something that should pass as a polite smile on her face.

"Well, we were looking for you mother actually, but we were informed that she passed way" started Zabini.

"Yes, a few years now" she answered not looking too sad about it.

"We are sorry to hear. Would you mind just clearing a few details for us?" asked Avery.

"Well, of course not. What would you like to know?"

"Yes" said Malfoy making a show of opening a fancy leather folder where he begin to write things down "Now, how many children did you mother have?"

"Oh, only two, two girls, me and my younger sister"

"and you both in good health, never any serious illness? anything strange?"

"Of course not" she looked offended "no strangeness in my family"

"I'm terribly sorry if that came out wrong, I meant no offence" said Malfoy coolly.

"Oh! It's alright, I suppose. We just don't like strangeness that's all."

"We?" asked Zabini.

"My husband and I. That's us on the beach at Majorca with our son. He is 16 now."

The three man looked at each other. How could they find out what they wanted? This had to be the right family, but this woman and the rest of her family were clearly muggles. If there was really magic in this family it had to be on her sister's side.

"Excuse me, Madame" said Zabini looking at the woman with a dazzling smile "We should talk to your sister as well... would it be possible for us to have her address?"

"I'm afraid not" she said pressing her lips together as if she didn't want to talk about it.

"It would be extremely important to our research"

"Well, she passed away almost 15 years ago. She and her husband were on this car crash... really, no need to talk about her. More tea?"

"Oh! Please, allow me" said Malfoy picking up the tea pot before she could and pouring some tea on her cup first, before proceeding to the others.

"Oh! How lovely, Thank you"

Malfoy gave a pointed look to Zabini, who immediately got up and moved closer to the pictures.

"This fine young man is your son, you say? Impossible, Madame, you're much too young to have such a grown up man for a son"

The woman giggled at the flirtatious wizard, not noticing Malfoy adding a few drops of a small bottle he dug out of his pockets before handing the cup back to her. Zabini kept talking to her about one picture or another until he notice she losing her grip on the tea cup and her eyes getting unfocused.

"She is ready" he said leading her back to the couch where he began to question her.

"Is your sister really dead?"

"Yes"

"Was your sister a witch?"

"Yes, she was a freak"

"Is anyone else in your family a wizard or a witch?"

"Her son"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, he left, runway"

"Bloody hell" yelled Avery "How can we find him now?"

"I don't know, he runway" answered the woman not able to realize the question was rhetorical. Zabini looked ready to punch the woman, so did Avery.

"and do you have any idea where we could go looking for him? Where will he go?" asked Malfoy.

"Yes, He will go to Hogwarts"

"Hogwarts? Is he a student in Hogwarts?" Malfoy was smiling, things were looking up!

"Yes"

"What is his name?"

"Harry, Harry Potter"

The sound of china hitting the floor was the only sound in the living room were the woman was unaware of the three gasping wizards.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:**

THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SLASH! If you don't like it, don't read it.

Oh! One more thing before I forget: I don't own anything just the plot and a few debts. Don't sue!

**Chapter 07**

Every year, the first night out of his uncle's house was always a time to be cherish, at least that's how Harry always felt. This year however everything seemed even better. The order was ready to pick him up under Dumbledore's orders, Ron just went and did it, he was out of that horrible place with his best friend turned boyfriend (Yes!) and nobody had yelled at him... at least yet. Ron went in the middle of the day, they had taken the Knight bus at broad day light (ok, it was very early in the morning and it was still pretty dark, but technically, it was day already) and nobody seemed to mind just as long as he was ok. Harry never had so many people showing that they cared so much about him before. It felt wonderful.

Harry was brought back to reality by the someone opening his bedroom door. He turned around and saw Ron standing in the doorway.

"Everywhere else is full. Do you mind sharing with me?" he asked smiling, Harry smiled two, those were some of the first words they had ever exchanged back in their first trip to Hogwarts. Ron came in and closed the door behind him.

"Are you sure this is ok, Ron? Your mom is just down the hall, doesn't she mind you dating me?"

"Why would she mind, Harry? She adores you, you know that." Ron seemed really confused with the question.

"Yes, but she also knows I'm a male as well. Doesn't she mind?"

"Oh! I see, It's not that we are dating that is worrying you. It's the fact that we are both boys"

"Well... yes. Isn't that a problem?"

"I keep forgetting you don't know that much about the wizarding world, Harry." Said Ron smiling again "Don't worry, nobody will mind" He saw Harry's look of disbelief "no, serious. It's not a big deal to wizards, most of us are bisexuals anyway"

"Really?"

"Sure, you see, when it comes to dating, the important thing to a wizard is to be magically compatible. Our magic chooses our partners, someone who will complete us and help our magic to evolve. You may, of course, became involved only with men or women if you want, but your magic will make no distinction of gender. Therefore... no problems with mom"

"Oh! Does this mean we are together for the rest of our lives?"

"Not really. I'm mean, we will always be friends, I hope, but our magic is still too unstable... we're too young to know how much power we really have and how our magic works, you know: healing, transfiguration, charms... we don't know our strong and weak points because our magic hasn't settle on anything yet. According to mom, as our magic changes our partners may change as well. There are a few spells to determine if a couple is compatible though, at least enough to get married, that's what purebloods use to arrange their children marriages. They get the intended couple in a..." Ron didn't look like he was going to stop talking anytime soon. Harry decided to take matters in to his own hands.

"Ron" he said grabbing the redhead's face in his hands and pulling him to a kiss "Shut up"

Ron did not hesitate in his response. He put his arms around the smaller boy's body and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss. They stood there, exploring each other's mouth, shy hands slowly making their way down their bodies.

Harry mapped Ron's chest over his shirt, touching the large shoulders, muscles arms and chest, finding their way around Ron's waist to explore his back as well. At the same time he could feel Ron's hands on his back, pulling him closer while moving down until finally reaching his butt, where they grabbed his ass cheeks, bringing their erections together. Ron's powerful muscles started to move, rubbing Harry against his body and making both of them moan because of the friction.

"Oh, Harry, I want you so much" said Ron kissing him and making Harry's knee go weak. Ron let go of Harry moving backwards until he could sit on the bad "undress for me, love"

Harry felt himself blushing. He had been naked in front of Ron before, more than once they had taken showers at the same time, but he had never intended to get naked FOR Ron and Ron had never watched him like that before. Slowly, Harry undid the buttons of his shirt and let it fall of his shoulders, dropping it on the floor. He stepped out of his shoes, kicking them aside, his hands touching himself, finding their way to his belt and opening it.

Ron's eyes were glue on him, his hands grabbing the bed covers so hard his knuckles were white, as if he was trying to control himself not to touch Harry again while he as getting undressed. Harry suddenly realized how much power he had over Ron, he could see his mates eyes following his hands. Ron's tongue darting out to moisture his lips, his eyes darker than normal, his breath getting harder... it was intoxicating and Harry didn't feel all that shy anymore.

He slowly undid his belt, opened the button on his pants and undid the zipper halfway through, letting his hand slide inside his pants to run over his erection. Ron started moaning and rubbing himself in front of Harry. Harry didn't think he could get harder, but the site in front of him was doing the trick and he knew he wouldn't last much longer. Harry opened his pants and let then fall on the floor, stepping out of then as he made his way to Ron.

Ron, without taking his eyes out of Harry's body, started to take his cloches off too. They met in a violent kiss, falling back on the bed, exploring their naked bodies as they made their way to the centre of the mattress.

----------

Ok. You know the drill. If you want the uncensored version go to adultfanfiction . net. It's a fairly long scene.

Hey, no complaints - their house, their rules, we just obey.

---------

They entered the kitchen together only to find six pairs of eyes turning to them.

"So... Harry, Ron, did you sleep well?" asked one of the twins with a mischievous smile on his face. The one using a Weasley sweater with a large F on it... probably George.

"Yes, we were worried. We heard all sorts of noises coming from your room last night" added the other one with a matching smile and whose sweater had a large G... that one had to be Fred.

"Yeah! It sounded like someone was hurt" said the first one.

Ginny was giggling behind her goblet, Remus and Tonks were both staring at some spot in the ceiling and Hermione was bright red reading the same page on a book ever since they enter the kitchen.

"No, no one was hurt. We slept just fine. Didn't hear a thing. Did we love?" asked Ron sitting on a chair and pulling Harry in to his lap.

Mrs. Weasley chose that moment to enter the kitchen while checking the contents of her purse.

"Good morning, dears. Is everybody ready to leave? I told Arthur we would met him for lunch at noon at the Leaky Caldron and I still need to buy a few things before that. Ron, Harry, we do have enough chair, you know? Did you lads sleep well? You look tired"

"Oh, Gods!" said Harry hiding his face at Ron's neck in attempt to hide a severe blush as everybody else gave up pretending and started laughing out loud, leaving a very confused Mrs. Weasley looking around.

**Chapter 08**

The trip to the Diagon Alley was uneventful, they floo from the Grimmaud 12 strait in to the twins store, who had apparated just a minute before to set the fire. Mrs. Weasley left them at the store while she ran to do her shopping after they all promised to met her and Mr. Weasley at the Leaky Cauldron for Harry's birthday lunch and, let's face it, being inside that store before it was open to the general public was like having a childhood dream came true.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and even Tonks where stocking up for the whole year, no matter how many times Remus reminded Tonks that she wasn't going anywhere and that they could came back whenever she wanted, and Hermione kept telling the others that most of that stuff was prohibited at Hogwarts anyway and they were just wasting money.

The fact that Hermione was being her usual 'by-the-book" charming self didn't spoil their mood, that was just Hermione being Hermione. Remus told her to loosen up a bit before moving over to Tonks who was checking some innocent looking marble balls on a counter. Harry smiled to himself as he suddenly realised that those two were spending a lot of time together lately.

The twins came from the back of the store holding a large bag.

"Harry, dear..."

"... you know we always loved you like a brother..."

"...well, no the way Ron is loving you lately..."

"... but we love you anyway..."

Harry could feel his face blushing more and more.

_Thank all the Gods the store was closed. _Was the only thing that came to Harry's mind.

"... and since you manage to shag your way in to this family..."

"Fred!"

"George!"

"Boys!"

- _Thank Gods the store is closed_ -

"...we would like to proudly present you..."

"... the Deluxe Weasley Bag of Fun..."

"... we hope you like it." They finished placing the bag at Harry's hand.

"Wow, Thank you" said Harry smiling from ear to ear.

"We added a few special products..." they said leaning closer and whispering.

"... from the adult part of the shop..."

"Do tell how do you like them" they added in sync.

Harry gulped looking down at the bag... "_ Oh, Gods!_"

The ten of them were siting at a specially decorated room at the Leaky Cauldron and Harry couldn't remember a time when he was happier... well, in public anyway. The room was full of balloons enchanted to dance around the whole time and everybody was wearing silly party hats that shot serpentines every now and then.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave him a set of Wizards Chess on Gryffindor's colours, Hermione had brought a defence against the dark arts book with incredible fighting techniques, Ginny gave him a box of chocolate frogs, Tonks gave him three books on the life and training of auros and Remus gave him a set of runes made of moon stone ("to guide you while I'm not there" – according to him).

Lunch was a noisy affair with everybody talking and laughing at the same time.

After lunch Mr. Weasley and the twins had to go back to work and the rest of then decide to have ice cream for desert. As they sat at the Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Harry notice that he had forgotten the twins gift.

"Everything all right, love?" asked Ron.

"Sure, I'll just run back inside and get the bag" Harry answered giving Ron a pointed look.

"What bag..." Ron started but soon his eyes widened as he remembered "Yes, the bag, hurry back then, we'll save you a sit".

Harry quickly made his way back to the party room, hoping nobody when up there to clean and only to find the bag and the gods only knew what the twins had put in there. He climbed the stairs jumping two steps at the time and hurrying inside the room only to see it was still empty.

Harry found the bag at the corner where he had left it in order not to caught Mrs. Weasley's attention and hastily checked the contents to see if anything was missing. He heard the door closing behind him and smiled, Ron had come after him... his smile quickly vanished as he looked at the window in the wall in front of him and saw Ron sitting at the table outside.

"_actio wand_" said a voice behind him, Harry felt his wand flying out of his pocket and spun around trying to catch it before it was too late, he missed it.

"Harry, I'm afraid I just missed the party, but I hope is not to late to wish you a happy birthday" said a all too familiar voice in parceltongue from the door.

Harry quickly looked around measuring his options. "_well, here I am, after all these years of training, facing Voldemort. Who happens to be standing on the only way out with three Death Eaters and my wand... way to go, Harry. Wonder what my tomb stone will say_"

"Why don't we sit down and have a drink?" asked Voldemort.

"Excuse me?" Harry blinked, switching to parceltongue as well without noticing that invitation was not what he was expecting to hear. "_Very smart answer Harry, way to go_"

"A drink. Boy. Why don't we sit down and have a drink?" Voldemort repeated sitting at the table. Oddly enough he was smiling.

Harry sat down at the further chair from Voldemort. He was trying to be brave but he knew the others could see his hands shaking.

"_I'm dead, I'm dead. He won't even make it fast, he'll torture me first... I have to get out of here. How? What can I do?_"

The sound of a voice talking to him called his attention back.

"So, how is your birthday so far?" Voldemort was saying as if they had been friends all along.

"Fine, It has been fun" Harry was willing to talk all Voldemort wanted, maybe it would get him some time to work something up, maybe someone from downstairs would miss him and came looking for him... "_oh! Gods! It would probably be Ron. I have to get out of there fast."_

"Did you get a lot of gifts?"

"Yes. Quite a few"

"Really? And what did you get?"

"_what the hell is he playing at?_"

"Oh! This bag of tricks from the twins joke shop - "_ maybe there is something in here I can use... did they gave me any fireworks?_" - a few books, a set of wizards chess, some chocolate frogs and a set of runes"

"That is not a lot" said Voldemort, but his tone was not ironic or aggressive. Harry was getting more and more worried, wondering when would the attack came.

"That is plenty, thank you very much"

"My, my. So aggressive" Voldemort made a gesture and the Death Eater behind him put a beautiful wooden box on the table.

"_ Ah! Here it comes_" though Harry.

"I would like to give you something as well"

"Of course. Will it be the same thing you gave my parents or it is a new thing?"

Voldemort hesitated but didn't seem angry. he seemed... almost sad, Harry was even more at lost. "_What is going on in here?_"

"Let's not talk about the past today. Let's just talk about the present" said Voldemort opening the box. A black snake came from inside it. Voldemort continued with their dialogin parceltongue "This is Shadow, she is a very special creature, very dear to me. Her mother has been with me for years"

"Nagini" said Harry also in parceltongue before he could stop himself.

"Yes, our connection has served you well" Voldemort smiled "but as I said that is the past, the present however needs attention. As we speak a group of people very dear to you is sitting just below that window behind you eating ice cream..." Harry felt the hair on the back of his neck standing up "also, in the same store, there are 12 of my followers just waiting for my order to attack. Which bring us to your choice."

"What choice?"

"Accept my gift or they all die"

"What is your gift, then?" said Harry trying to stall the conversation as much as he could.

"Shadow is my gift"

"What?" Harry looked at the beautiful snake in front of him "So, instead of killing me yourself you want me to accept being bit by your snake and dying like a good boy?"

"Shadow's bite won't kill you, Harry. It will bind Shadow to you. I would never kill you in such a common manner"

"Oh, How rude of me to assume that. Let me rephrase that: So, instead of killing me you will just try to control me through some bond? Nice plan, won't work though. Dumbledore will figure it out as soon as he sees your gift. He is too good to be fooled by your pet"

Harry was hoping to infuriate Voldemort and forcing him to commit a mistake. They were talking in parceltongue the whole time, hopefully the Death Eaters would take a few seconds to react since they didn't understand what was being said. Voldemort laughed.

"Your confidence in the old fool in remarkable, but so you know, there is a lot he is not telling you, a mistake that I don't intend to make. And I can assure you that from my part is not a trick of any sort. The spell to bond the two of you together can only be accessed by someone from the same family. If we are not related as family I'll never be able to use it to see how your doing or where you're going. You see, it's not the same bond that we share right now because of that little ritual back in your forth year, that is a complete different matter"

Voldemort was happy with his game of words. He said the truth but manage to keep the key facts hidden from the boy, like them being family. He would find that out soon enough. He would tell him as soon as the boy grew fond of the snake, so he wouldn't try to break the bond, something that was possible in the early stages of it.

"and I should believe all you're saying and play along with it because I know for a fact that you are a very nice person who would never lie to me and that can always be trusted, right?"

"No" Voldemort was laughing even harder "by all means no. Although I never lied to you. You'll play along, as you say, because I can kill all your friends before they finish their desert and you don't have to believe me, but think about it. What reason do I have to lie? If I wanted I would bond you and Shadow together and do it in a way that you prevent you from ever saying a word to anybody... or I could simply bond you to me, making you my slave for the rest of your life. You are not in a position were you would be able to resist. Isn't it right?"

"All right. Let's do it" "_ and so dies Harry Potter_" Harry knew for a fact he was done for, he just hoped it wouldn't hurt too much.

The snake crawled to him and climbed up his arm. Harry tried to stay still and show no fear, Voldemort seemed amused by it.

"Don't worry, master, It won't hurt and we'll be together forever" hissed the snake before biting him near his collarbone. Harry felt the poison burning in to him not to painfully for almost a minute before the world went black.

-----------

Harry woke up with his head resting on the table and a soft hiss at his ear.

"Wake up, master, there are people outside the door" he heard Shadow.

"How long was I out?" asked Harry looking around. He was alone and the bag of tricks was by his feet.

"About five minutes" said Shadow hiding under his shirt as a cleaning lady walked in.

"Oh, I though the room was empty"

"It's alright" said Harry getting to his feet "_what happen? How come I'm alive?"_ "I'm leaving"

Harry hurried outside and made an excuse of having to look for the bag to explain his delay. There was no need to get everybody worried until he knew exactly what had happened upstairs and the secrets Dumbledore was hiding but Voldemort was willing to tell.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 09**

Harry's body was drifting off, he slowly became aware of being in the yard behind the house, where he as crawling under the bushes.

"_Oh, great! I seeing through the snake's eye again. At least it is only Shadow this time. I hope she doesn't attack anybody it was bad enough when her mother attacked Mr. Weasley last year, that is not an experience I look forward to repeat_"

His attention was drawn by the sound of an angry voice, he stuck his tongue out to smell who was near, he knew that smell, two people, two people he knew. Curiosity got the best of him and he allowed the snake to get closer, it seemed safe enough, so far he had no troubles controlling shadow.

"They are upstairs right now you know, as we speak, they are there, touching each other. How can you be so calm?"

"There is no use to get upset. We will find a way to either use this or break them apart. You know how far we came, I won't let all go to waste because the boy decided to play around before finding the only and true love of his life and getting married. It's alright, child, by this time next year the two of you will be together"

"How can you be so sure? We know how resistant he is to mind altering spells. He will never let go Ron and fall for me! Not to mention the fact that Ron will put up a fight"

"Mr. Weasley will be the unfortunate victim of a Death Eater attack at the end of the school year or during the next summer vacations, Harry will be heart broken and you will be there to console him... with the aid of a very strong potion to help him make up his mind."

"A potion? Do you think it will work?"

"Why not? It worked on his mother when I convinced her that James was Harry's father and I assure you... she loved Severus very much. It was quite hard to make him forget also, if memory serves"

"_What? What the hell is this? Who is talking?_" Harry started to became more agitated in his sleep and hurry the snake to move closer and take a look at the people talking in the yard.

"Oh! I have to tell you... the glamour spells are becoming less effective"

"Really? With all the reinforcement I just placed on his uncle's house and with your help as well? How can that be?

"I don't know, maybe he is getting stronger. I know it was supposed to last until his seventeenth birthday but..."

"Yes, yes, he is too strong. It's not a complete surprise you know. Lily was a powerful witch and Severus is very powerful himself... Well, I guess we will have to accelerate the whole thing then"

The snake came out from under the bush and stare strait in to the two people talking in the old gazebo in the back yard.

"Thank Merlin! So, when do we kill Ron?" Asked a very business like Hermione.

"Soon, I believe we can stage a Death Eater attack even before the school starts. Yes, that would be better, that way the two of you could arrive as a couple. The sooner we establish you as Harry's loved one the better" Answered Dumbledore

"Can I do it?" Hermione asked smiling.

"Oh, Dear! Why so eager?" Dumbledore was smiling now.

"I hate when people get in the way of my plans. I should have been the one to get Harry out of the Dusley's. I should be the one upstairs. Why did he have to go there in the first place?"

"I told you to not under estimate the feeling Mr. Weasley harbours for Harry. When Harry failed to send news for a certain amount of time, he acted like any other sixteen years old in love, he when to rescue his beloved from his evil relatives. It was just bad luck the he got there before you and Remus. If all went as planed he would be at your side, I have no doubt."

"Well, it doesn't matter now, the fact is that they are together and I don't..."

"Shh! Remus is coming" Dumbledore interrupted Hermione suddenly.

"Albus, Hermione. Is everything all right?" asked Remus stepping in to the gazebo.

"Oh, yes!" asked Dumbledore with the usual twinkle in his eyes "Miss Granger was just telling me how worried she was when the two of you did not find Harry at his uncle's house"

Remus looked touched by that. He put his arms around Hermione and pulling her in to a protective embrace.

"Oh, Hermione! I was very scared too, but it all turned out alright" he said trying to comfort her.

"Yes, I know but..." she answered with watery eyes "Harry could have been hurt..."

"I know, I know. It all right now" he said still holding her "Don't think about it anymore"

"Did you wanted something, Remus?" asked Dumbledore

"Oh! I'm sorry, Albus. Molly would like a word with you" he said letting go of Hermione.

"Let's see what she wants then. Are you coming, Dear?" said Dumbledore getting up.

"No, I'll stay out here a little longer" answered Hermione as the two wizards made their way back to the house.

Hermione sat in the gazebo bench and pulled a small hard covered book from one of her pockets and began to read. Harry was shocked beyond words. Dumbledore was using him a lot more than he had ever dreamed about it.

"_Snape is my father... SNAPE!... his FATHER? How? When? WHY? And Hermione? It has to be a dream, a nightmare. It is a trick sent by Voldemort. Of course! How thick would I be to fall for the same trick twice? It may had worked last year, and I did paid dearly for it, I've lost Sirius, but it would not work a second time. Nope, no way in hell. Never. _"

His attention was drawn back to the gazebo as a second figure stepped in front of him. A rat with a silver paw.

Wormtail.

The rat began to change and, sure enough, in a few seconds Peter Pettigrew was standing near Hermione.

"Good afternoon, Miss Granger."

"Wormtail! I though you had orders not to came here when there were others in the house" snapped Hermione.

"Oh! but I have important news..." said the ratman.

"Well, deliver them and go away. What is so important that you had to came here to say?"

"Something that I will say only to Dumbledore, child"

In a second Hermione was at her feet with her wand pointed at Pettigrew.

"I'm not a child, rat, and I'm not scared by you"

"I'm sorry, Miss Granger" said the ratman cowering and stepping back from the witch "but I really must speak to Dumbledore. It's urgent"

"What is so 'urgent', rat? And why should I believe a traitor?"

"I've never betrayed Dumbledore. I've been his faithful servant for longer than you have lived. Ask him if he had any reasons to complain of my services for the past 20 years. Go on, ask him. I'm no traitor and I do have urgent news."

"Oh! have it your way than. I'll call him. Wait here." Said Hermione leaving.

Pettigrew looked around nervous and transformed back in to his rat form, hiding in the bushes not far from where Harry observed everything through Shadow's eyes.

"_It's a nightmare, it's a nightmare_" Harry kept saying to himself "_but... what if it's not a nightmare? What if it's real... I have to do something... Shadow get him, get him, get him_" Harry began to repeat in his dream.

"_How should I do it, master? Do you want him to yourself or do you want him dead_?" Harry could hear the snake voice inside his mind. Suddenly, Harry realised two things, first it was not a nightmare and second, he knew that because he just realised he had never fallen asleep. He was awake and painfully aware of that.

"_Can you bring him to me? Alive? _"

"_Yes_"

"_Do it_"

While still lying in bed next to Ron's sleeping form, Harry kept his eyes closed and watched as the snake crept closer so the rat and struck a blunt blow to the smaller creature's head and then wrapped her body around it's dizzy prey, strangulating it until it fainted. Shadow than swallowed the unconscious rat and crawled back to the house, crossing with Hermione and Dumbledore on their way back to the yard.

Miles from there, the Dark Lord woke up and gaze at the ceiling, his anger boiling inside him.

"A traitor, well Two of them no less... in my inner circle! Well, That sure was a useful gift. I must thank the seer for her suggestion"

**Chapter 10**

Harry sat on the bed very carefully not to wake Ron. Now he was glad he hadn't mention the events on the Leaky Cauldron to anybody, but he recognised that he had being lucky. One more day and he would have told everything to Ron and Hermione, like always, so they could figure out what was going on.

Hermione. No, Merlin, no. He heard wrong, that was no way Hermione could...

"So, when do we kill Ron?" he remembered his best friend saying "when do we kill Ron?". Kill Ron? He was one of her best friends too. The three of them had been together since the first year, they had faced death, saved each others lives... Harry's head started spinning. He didn't need more questions right now. He needed answers.

Shadow entered the room a few minutes later and regurgitated the unconscious form of wormtail at his feet, crawling away at Harry's command, remaining at striking distance.

Voldemort couldn't help but smile, his gift to the boy was turning out to be better than he expected. There was a lot he could learn now, not only on how to get close to his grandson without having to use threats like last time or the latest plans of the old fool and his merry band but also about the flaw in his ranks he knew nothing about, and all this time he though Severus was the only spy. Well, Severus was being manipulated far more than he originally though, maybe he was a spy as well, but without the memory charm, where would his loyalty be placed?

The little conversation between the old bugger and the mudblood was most informative, Severus was the boy's father and a possibly an unwilling spy, but his memory had been altered which could mean that he could be brought back to his side, which was not a bad thing. That way he would be able to keep his potion master, the man's skills were unparalleled for Merlin sake, and provide a father to the boy, something he would not be able to resist for long. Yes, all he had to do was to find out what had been changed in Severus memory before bringing them together, no need to jeopardise anything and lose them both.

"_Well_" he heard Harry saying in parseltongue and turned his attention back to the scene unfolding at the boys room "_what shall we do it him now, my beautiful_?"

"_He was suppose to serve my mother's master but he just claimed obedience to another. He should die_"

"_Yes, but he knows a lot of things we don't, a lot of things I don't know and they concern me. How can we make him talk_?"

"_Don't you magic users have a beverage that makes the drinker speak the truth_?"

"_Wizards, we don't call ourselves magic users, the word is wizard and yes, we do, but Snape is the only one that could get me some and I don't know if I can trust him_"

"_Who is this Snape_?"

"_A potion master, the bane of my existence at Hogwarts and apparently, my father! Isn't live a beautiful thing? On top of everything SNAPE of all people is my father. How did that happen_?"

"_well, not very happy are we?_" Voldemort chuckled "_Severus can have that affect on people_"

"_You should be able to trust your own blood_"

"_I should be able to trust my headmaster and mentor, I should be able to trust my muggleborn best friend, I should not accept gifts from a crazy old man who has being trying to kill me ever since I was born, specially when the gift turns out to be a poisonous snake, and yet, here you are... so, let's not talk about what I should or should not do_"

Ron moved on the bed catching his attention. The bed sheets wrapped around him as he made himself more comfortable and continue to sleep. Harry dropped his voice to a whisper, realising that he had raised it without noticing.

"_They want to kill him_" he said half to himself half to Shadow "_I can't lose him too, I've already lost everybody else_"

"_Maybe we should talk to my mother's master_..."

"_No Shadow, we stay the hell way from him, the least he knows the better... only family can tap in to our bond, right_?"

"_Yes, master. That is the truth. It is a blood bond_"

"_Good, he knows nothing of these then_..."

"_Master, there is something you should know_..."

Harry looked at Shadow, She looked... embarrassed? Was she deliberately not looking him in the eye?

'_oh-oh, this can't be good'_Harry though at the same time he said out loud "_Oh! There is more that is being kept from me_?"

"_Actually, no. It has being said, you just didn't realise the full extent of it. My mother's master has kept no secrets from you, master. He was just not too obvious about it_"

Harry raised his brow at the snake "_what is she going on about?_" and suddenly he remembered something.

"_the tournament. In my fourth year Voldemort took my blood. He can tap in to the blood bond_..."

"_No, Master. It's a complete different matter, the bond created by that spell or by the spell that gave you that scar is not the same bond we share right now_"

Something caught Harry's attention. There was something there... He couldn't quite place... and then he remembered. Those were almost the same words Voldemort had used when they met.

"Your confidence in the old fool in remarkable, but so you know, there is a lot he is not telling you, a mistake that I don't intend to make. And I can assure you that from my part is not a trick of any sort. The spell to bond the two of you together can only be accessed by someone from the same family. If we are not related I'll never be able to use it to see how your doing or where you're going. You see, it's not the same bond that we share right now, that is a complete different matter"

"_and what is the difference_?" asked Harry, he felt uneasy and was almost sure he would not like the answer he was about to receive.

"_I don't know much, Master_."

"_Tell me what you know and we go from there_"

"_The blood taken from you did not create a bond, just restored the Dark Lord's body... mother says thank you, by the way_"

'_I did not just hear that, I'm not having a conversation where I've just been handed the thanks sent by my pet snake's mom for helping restore the body of the Dark Lord'_ Harry's head was not only spinning but also starting to hurt.

"_and the spell that created the scar linked you to his spells, not to his familiar_" he heard Shadow add.

"_Good, that means we don't have a blood link, he can't see through your eyes like... Oh, Merlin like I can see through Nagini's eyes_"

Shadow looked him strait in the eyes now, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"_Shadow..."_

"_Yes, Master_."

"_Can anyone besides family tap in to the familiar's bond_"

"_no, Master_"

'_Oh, Merlin, please, no' _"_Why can I tap in to Nagini's bond_?"

"_You can tap because it's a family bond_"

"_and who_... "

"_Master, the rat is awaking_!"

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS" Harry didn't even stop to think., a plan was forming in his mind and he had no time to lose.

"_Shadow, can... he meet us at the Leaky Cauldron_?

_"I don't know, Master. He can only see and hear through me, but I don't send things as I wish and I don't know if he can send anything_"

"_Try, I need him to met us at there as soon as possible_"

Voldemort was pleased to see the boy wanting to meet so soon, but he could understand his reasons. He wanted the truth. Voldemort only hoped that would be enough to win him over. He send  
his answer through Nagini.

"_Tell your daughter I'll be there tomorrow at 10 in the morning_"

"_Mother tells me he will be there at 10 tomorrow morning_" Shadow told Harry.

"_Good, I'll see him there, same room, tomorrow morning_." Harry knew there was no point in playing naive now. The Dark Lord most likely knew everything he had found out in the last hour... SNAPE! He knew about Snape. Harry hurried down stairs.

"Remus, Mrs. Weasley" he burst in to the kitchen and found them sitting there with tea cups on their hands "Voldemort, he found out we have a spy in his fold, he is going to get Snape. We have to warn him, now"

"Oh! dear" Molly's tea cup fell on the floor as she ran into the next room to talk to Snape through the floo network while Remus ran outside to apparate as close as possible to Hogwarts.

Snape was sitting in his study at Hogwarts. All he had been able to do in the last few days was think and drink, but no matter how much thinking or how great the amount of alcohol he drank he could not find a solution for his situation.

He could not remember everything yet, but the memory block was starting to break. He was starting to remember.

He came to Hogwarts with all the pureblood believes one could expect from a member of a family as old as his and then he met Lily. Merlin, she was a dreamland creature. There could be no other explanation. A fairy with green eyes and red hair. He fell for her the minute he saw her. They were eleven.

It took him years to build up the courage to talk to the girl, specially after defending him as he was been attacked by the marauders one day. They had hang him up side down, showing his boxers to the whole school. Merlin, he was so humiliated... and SHE came to his rescue. Of all people, she had seen him hanging there. He wished he was dead that day. He was so rude to her he was certain she would never look his way again, but in the very next day she smiled at him across the library.

Only a few weeks later he had the nerve to go up to her and ask her something... he couldn't remember what it was, something about a book or a class assignment. They became friends, started to date and finally got to the point where they couldn't wait anymore. Harry was conceived that afternoon. They were so happy.

Of course, there were clouds in the horizon. His father wanted him to join the ranks of Lord Voldemort and the Dark Lord was welcoming the idea. He was a pureblood. That would put Lily and the baby in danger. They knew that and decided to turn to their headmaster for help.

They knew the man was organising a resistance, a force outside the ministry to fight the Dark Lord, all they had to do as to join in. Right?

Snape almost laugh at his own innocence. His and Lily's.

Dumbledore had other plans for them. He needed a spy and Snape was in the best position to infiltrate Voldemort's ranks. He was even being invited. He wanted Snape to accept the Dark Lord's offer to receive the dark mark and became a spy for the light. Snape refused.

Dumbledore apparently accepted Snape's answer and volunteered to perform the bonding ceremony for the two lovers. Lily was very happy.

And then it happened.

It was just a flash of bright light, Snape didn't even remember any sound, just the light and suddenly he was standing at the corner of the room with Remus Lupin at his side who also looked very lost and watching Lily and Potter get married.

"Remus, I'm glad you could make it. I was worried you would feel up to it because of the full moon last night" said James coming their way.

"What? Oh! Yes! Full moon... no, I'm alright" Remus did look confused. Snape finally understood, the werewolf was recovering from a spell as well, he had no idea what was going on. Snape forced his memory, Black had been sitting on a chair, also exhibiting signs of a spell and Pettigrew... was fine, grinning like mad standing by Dumbledore. No signs of spell at all.

'_What had been going on? What was Albus playing at?'_

A sharp pain in his left arm got him out of his thoughts. Lord Voldemort was calling.

"I just hope I can hide all this from him, today is not a good day to die" said Snape throwing his cape over his robes and walking out of the room seconds before the fireplace became green with the head of a very preoccupied Molly Weasley peering in the empty room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 11**

**Author's note: **  
This was going to be a short chapter, but I manage to work it out. It appears I have hit a writer's block, so I'll deal with it the only way I know how, writing even if it is in small amounts. I hope nobody minds and I try to get over it soon. It's just a hard (very busy) time at the office and it is taking a lot of my energy.

And just a reminder:

"character talking"  
"_character thinking or using telepathy _"  
character "talking" or "_using telepathy_" in parceltongue

Well... on with the show.

Snape walked hastily, using a side door to the castle to get faster to a point from where he could apparate. Maybe if he got there fast enough he could talk to Trelaway before the Dark Lord called upon him.

Not three minutes after he left the room, Lupin opened the door calling for him.

Lupin looked around, studding the messy room. That was very out of character for Snape. He may not like the man, but he had to admit that Snape was nothing but organised, to find a room with books laying around, used glasses and open bottles of liquor was strange to say the least. Something was seriously wrong here, he just could figure out what and he didn't have time for it either. Picking up Snape's scent he hushed out of the room, maybe he could still keep Snape from apparating in to a death trap.

He ran as fast as he could for exactly two minutes before coming to a point where the scent simply vanished. Snape had answered Voldemort's call, he was too late.

Harry was pacing around the kitchen hoping Lupin would make it in time. He may not have liked the idea of being Snape's son, but he was not keen to the perspective of losing another father right after discovering he had one.

Molly came back to the kitchen with a worried look on her face and Harry knew she didn't find Snape at his quarters. She patted him on the shoulder trying to comfort him.

"Don't worry, dear. Remus will get to him. You'll see."

The back door opening made them turn around fast, but it was Dumbledore and Hermione coming back from the garden. Harry muse on how they still looked the same even after all he found out not one hour ago.

"_What else is being hidden from me? Dumbledore is a liar and now I know I can never trust him. Voldemort promised me the truth, but can I trust him? How?_"

"Albus, Oh! Albus. Harry just had a dream, You-know-who knows about Snape, he found out"

Harry was glad Molly took the initiative of telling Dumbledore. He hadn't though about how he would explain knowing about Voldemort and Snape. The dream was actually a good explanation, everybody would buy it.  
"Oh! How did this happen, Harry? Do you know?" Dumbledore asked sitting down and accepting a cup of tea Molly handed him.

"I'm not sure, he said Pettigrew told him something, but I couldn't discover what it was" Harry said "_good, let them think their precious little spy betrayed Snape like he did my parent... well, my mom and her husband. This way they will believe that was what wormtail was here to say and not worry too much about whatever information he was bringing_" "Then he send for Snape and wormtail" "_and that may explain why wormtail wasn't outside to meet them, if they believe what I'm saying_"

"Well, let's hope for the best. Snape knows how to take care of himself, I'm sure he will be alright" Dumbledore said looking at his cup.

"Oh, Harry" said Hermione touching Harry's arm "another dream? Are you hurt? Do you need a potion for pain or something?"

"No" Harry answered stepping away from Hermione "I'm fine, just a bit uneasy, that's all. I'm going to check on Ron. Call me as soon as you hear something... anything"

"Ok, we will" he heard Hermione answer as he started to climb the stairs.

Harry sat by Ron's side on the bed and looked at his boy friend. Ron would hate to miss anything, even if it was just to sit in the kitchen with everybody else and wait. Besides, if he spend the night awake, he would not be awake in the morning in time to tag along to Diagon alley, that would solve a major problem concerning the upcoming meeting with Voldemort.

"_Merlin, he will go ballistic when he finds out what is going on, specially about Snape being my father, I thing I'll wait until everything is sorted out before saying anything_"

"Ron" said Harry placing light kisses on the redhead. "wake up, love"

"Hum... Harry, what...?"

"I had a vision, Voldemort knows about Snape and summoned him. The order is trying to get to him first, I didn't think you would want to miss this"

"Merlin, no, I don't. I hope the greasy git is all right." Said Ron getting up and starting to get dress.

"Yeah. So do I" said Harry sighing.

They waited awhile before Lupin's head appeared in the fireplace with news, or no news, he said he would wait around in case Snape returned. Harry notice Ron drinking coffee and he knew his plan had worked. When they went back to the bedroom Ron said he would read a little before trying to sleep and was fast asleep when Harry woke up next morning.

Feeling a little guilty, Harry got up and got dressed, preparing for the big day ahead.  
Riddler Mansion - the night before.

Snape apparated on the door steps of the Dark Lord's mansion. A quick look around proved him the place was heavily protected with spells and Death Eaters on patrol.

"_uh-oh, this is not good. It's always a bad sign to be summoned to his house_"

He raised his hand to knock on the door, but it opened before he could actually do it. On the other side a very well dressed woman was smiling at him.  
"Severus, I'm so glad you could join us in this fine evening"

"Trelaway?"

"You may call me Sibil, Severus. We have known each other for quite some time now, haven't we?" she said taking him by his arm and leading him in to the house.

"Well... Sibil. I must say you took me by surprise, I don't remember seeing you quite so..."

"Normal? Dressed as a regular witch? Coherent?" she completed still smiling at him.

"Those are a few of the words that come to mind"

"Well, being drugged for twenty years didn't exactly help my wardrobe, but I'm doing better now" they came to a very elegant room and Trelaway sat at a deep red velvet sofa, indicating for Severus to sit by her side.

"About that, would it be possible for us to talk, I must confess I quite at lost at the situation and I don't know what to do" he said sitting next to her.

"Oh, Severus, don't worry" said the Dark Lord coming out of a door on the other side of the room "I know exactly what to do. Tell me, how is life as a spy treating you?"

"_bloody hell_" on the corner of his eyes Snape could see a large group of Death Eaters guarding the door, but strangely enough they made no movement to came in the room "_Maybe he is just suspicious, maybe I still have a chance_"

"My life is very good, Master. Dumbledore doesn't suspect me" said Snape kneeling down in from of the Dark Lord.

Snape felt the hair in the back of his neck stand on it's end when he heard Trelaway laughing.

"I told you he was good, my lord" she said getting up to stand next to Snape "Severus, do get up, please. There is no need for that in here. We are all very much aware of the truth in this room... well, part of it at least"

Snape got up, calculating the fastest way out of there, a mere look around showed him he had no chance of making out of that room alive. There were simply too many of them.

"_I'm a dead man, I just found out I have a son only to die without telling him... Merlin, what could I tell him to make up for the past six years?_"

Snape was brought back to reality by a touch in his arm.

"Severus?" Trelaway was talking to him, the traitor "We will be needing an answer"

"What?"

"Really, Severus, you seem to be miles away" said the Dark Lord smiling

"_SMILING, what the hell is he smiling for? Why is he trying to pretend to be civil? He should be screaming, throwing curses at me, having me beat up in to a bloody pulp at the very least_"

"I just asked you if you would like to put the past behind us and be part of my inner circle?"

Severus looked around, he knew it was some sick game the Dark Lord was playing with him. Sure enough he would be screaming in pain in no time no matter what answer he gave.

"Put the past behind us and became part of your inner circle?" Snape repeated

"Yes, that is correct" said the Dark Lord smiling at Trelaway who was pouring a glass of wine to herself and smiling back.

"just like that? You will forgive me just like that?"

"Of course, what is family for anyway?"

Snape felt a chill at the mention of family. Now he knew what the Dark Lord wanted from him, his son. In order to keep him alive, the Dark Lord was going to demand his son. Suddenly death didn't seem so bad after all.

"You are not going to touch my son" yelled Snape raising his wand, but before he could utter a spell his wand was flying in to the Dark Lord stretched hand.

"How loyal, very impressive, I'm pleased."

Snape felt defeated and let his head fall, how could he save his son now?

"I'm glad you feel the need to protect the boy even at the cost of your own life" said the Dark Lord sitting in a large chair and placing Snape's want at the side table "however, I have no desire to harm my grandson"

Snape's eyes went wide when he realised what the Dark Lord had said and he snapped his head up.

"grandson? How?"

"Well, a small mistake of my youth as it seems. Apparently Miss Evans' mother was quite the looker way back when and I... had a intimate moment with her and Miss Evans was not Miss Evans after all, she was Miss Riddler, or so I found out"

Snape looked from the Dark Lord to Trelaway, who was looking him in the eyes and still smiling, before looking back at the Dark Lord.

"How do I know this is truth?"

Voldemort laughter filled the room. "You are in no position to doubt. I could have killed you the minute you enter this house, I can still kill you, but I'm afraid my grandson will want all the family he can get and would not be pleased if I was to kill you now".

"I see, and you want me to bring him closer to you" Snape felt his stomach turning in to a Celtic knot "_he is going to use me to get close to Harry, I better play along for now until I find a way to save him_".

"No, as a matter of fact it will be the other way around. I'll bring him closer to you. Would you like to hear my extremely generous proposition?"

"Of course"

"as we speak, Harry is in possession of another spy. It just came to my attention that wormtail was a spy for Dumbledore all along"

Snape's eye brow shoot up. The scene in Dumbledore's office coming back to his mind.

"Tomorrow morning at 10, I will meet the boy at the Leaky Cauldron and we will talk about our recent discoveries and perhaps interrogate wormtail. Now, here is my proposition. You came along, you may even talk to him if you wish, and you will administer Veritassium to the rat so we can find out more. I want to came out of that meeting with the rat and a promise from my grandson that we will meet again. I do not wish to force him in coming with us... at least for now. So in addition to sparing your live and forgiving you of your... misdeeds, I'll help you getting closer to your son, so he can have the family he has being denied so far"

"is that it?"

"Yes, Dumbledore lied to the boy the whole time and now he knows it, he wants the truth and I'm the only one who can give it to him and he will accept me better if I'm no longer the one who killed his family, and that is where you fit in, I'll return his father to him"

"and then what?"

"Then is up to him, but I wouldn't oppose some revenge on Dumbledore"

Snape knew that would be his only chance, if the Dark Lord was lying he would get some time to react and if he was not... if he was not, Snape could still have some happiness in his life and a big fat load of revenge.

"I would be happy to assist you tomorrow, my Lord" said Snape bowing his head.

**Chapter 12**

Harry was nervous. No, that was an understatement, he had been nervous earlier when he convinced Tonks to come with him to Diagon Alley to, supposedly, buy Ron a gift and a few books to himself. Now, he didn't wanted to think about it. He left Tonks at the twins store and hurried to the Leaky Cauldron pulling the hood of his robes to hide his face before stepping into the street.

The Leaky Cauldron was almost empty, but Harry recognise a few of the patrons, he had seen them often enough in his visions to do it. He counted at least five Death Eaters but Merlin only knew how many he didn't.

"_No backing out now_" Harry said to himself as he made his way to the privet rooms.

The one used for his birthday had a 'reserved' sign at the door. Harry hesitated only a second before knocking. He could hear steps inside and low voices before the door opened. Voldemort was already there, sided by a hooded figure in expensive deep green robes and two Death Eaters in the normal Death Eater attire.

"_Ok, It's official, I've lost it._" though Harry walking in the room showing a courage he didn't feel like having at the moment.

"Harry, welcome. Please have a sit" said Voldemort and Harry sat down looking around the room. "How are you in this fine morning?"

"I'm just fine, Thank you, Tom." Harry answered just as polite, "and you? no problems getting here I hope"

"No, everything was fine"

"Ok, we played the polite bit, could we get to the point now?" Harry said while placing the petrified form of the rat on the table "I understand you could help me in solving a little mystery I stumbled upon"

Voldemort's eyes narrowed looking at the rat and a evil smile spread on his face as he pulled his wand. Harry discreetly let his wand fall in to his hand preparing himself for any curses thrown at him, he just couldn't bring himself in to trusting Voldemort so easily.

"Ah! Yes. Quite an interesting... mystery, we have here. We should start by bringing Mr. Pettigrew back, but before we do that, how about we set a little game?"

"I have no desire to play games, specially with you, I came here because..." Harry could not bring himself to say it, he could not admit the possibility of them being family. It was too ground shaking.

"Yes, because. There are a lot of possible ways to complete that sentence... let's see if I can guess a few of them" said Voldemort with half a smile on his face, Harry could feel his body getting more and more tense as he heard the other man speak "you came because you finally put together the hints about only family being able to tap in to your bond with your familiar and you know I can do it, you came because the old man said Snape is your father and you know I have him with me right now, you came because you found out about where the rat's real loyalty lies and that made you realise a lot of what has been told you may be a lie and you came because your boyfriend may be in danger... but not from me, what makes me, in a twisted way, the best option for his protection... how am I doing so far?"

"Well" Harry chuckle "nobody ever accused you of being anything less than very intelligent"

The Dark Lord gave a short laughter "Now, about that game I was talking about... once we start talking to our rat friend here, pretend nothing he says is a surprise, don't show him that you didn't know something he might say, don't show that you believe him or that you doubt him. He will try to measure his answers by your reactions. Don't give him hints. Can you do that?"

"I believe I can, but I need to know if... Snape, is alright"

"Oh, he is alright. He will be coming in this very room in a few minutes to administer Veritaserum to the rat. Don't act surprised at his entrance"

"Does he know he is my... well, you know"

"Yes, he found that out not a week ago with the help of a dear friend of mine, but I must say I'm still a bit mad I was not informed at the same opportunity" said Voldemort patting the hand of the hooded figure at his side.

"and you? What makes you able to tap in to my familiar bond?"

"Well, how can I say this? Your grandmother was... well, we were young, I was reckless, there was this fair and... but I never knew about your mother until very recently" Voldemort was being careful not to say anything that would jeopardise the little trust he had earned so far from the boy, it would be best if he didn't know his grandmother was an unwilling participant on his mothers conception just yet, he knew he would have to tell him that, maybe even today, but that was one piece of the truth that had to be very well placed or he could lose the boy for good.

"Perhaps is time we do what we came here to do, isn't it?" He said switching to English and with a wave of his wand the rat started to shake on the table and transformed in to the disgusting little man Harry remembered from the Shirking Shack. "Harry, if you would be so kind to release him from your spell."

Harry removed the spell, allowing Pettigrew to move and keep his wand ready. The rat man stood up immediately, climbing off the table and backing up against a wall. He looked at every person in the room, Potter looked ready to commit murder and was looking at him instead of Voldemort, not good. The two Death Eaters were wearing masks and were probably blindly faithful to the Dark Lord, no help there. He could not see the face of the person sitting next to Voldemort, but this one had to be important to be allowed to be sitting so close to the Dark Lord, all he could tell at the moment was that it was not Snape, this one had a much smaller figure, either way it didn't help his situation. Finally, Pettigrew looked at the Dark Lord, his best chance of getting out of there alive.

"Master" he said kneeling down.

Voldemort merely looked at the rat man, not bothering to answer. The hooded figure leaned over to the Dark Lord and whispered something in his ear. He nodded. The hooded figure got up and walked to the door, followed by one of the Death Eaters, who opened the door for the figure to pass and closed afterwards, remaining by the door with his arms by his side.

"_Great, now I'm surrounded_" though Harry "_I guess I'll find out the hard way if he has been lying_.

Pettigrew kept looking between the Dark Lord and Harry Potter, trying to figure out what was going on in that strange meeting and why was he there. Potter must have brought him here, no one else knew about Grimmaud Place, but did it mean? How much did he know? Pettigrew knew he was on dangerous ground and prepare himself to play the best he could, depending on how much the boy and the Dark Lord knew he could still come out of this one. He tried to remain calm.

The door opened again, attracting Pettigrew and Harry's attention. The hooded figure came back in holding a small vial, Harry could see now that it was a woman but he didn't gave much thought to the matter because right behind her another figure appeared. Snape.

Snape came in to the room with his heart beating faster than never before. His son was there. His and Lily's. After sixteen years he was going into a room where he would meet his son. He only wished it could be the first time, after all this time treating the boy as an annoyance, how could he expect his son to want him as a father? He would look upon him with disgust and anger and not want to have anything to do with him, it would take weeks, months, maybe even years to get closer and he could not blame anything on the boy, it was all his doing. The way he mistreated the boy in his class. Merlin, Why did he do it?

Harry saw Snape, his father came into the room and stand by his side. _"Merlin, he looked mad at something. He hates the idea of being my father, I can tell, he wishes it was anybody but me. How can I ever get closer to him?"_

"Please, we are all friends here, Let's sit" said Voldemort from the other side of the room.

They all sat around the table. Harry and Snape at one end, Voldemort and the mysterious woman on the other and Pettigrew somewhere in the middle.

"Peter" Voldemort started all of the sudden, making the rat man jump in his chair. "How was your visit to the Order of the Phoenix secret headquarters? Did you have a good time? Humm?"

Pettigrew looked nervously around the room, not knowing what to answer.

"Oh, I see, that was a hard question… let's see if I can make this any easier. Why do you claim to have been loyal to Dumbledore for the past twenty years?… no? Let's see… What news were you bringing to Dumbledore yesterday?… still too hard?… Why didn't you tell me Snape here was a spy?…"

"I had no idea, Master…"

"No idea? How odd! And here I believed that if you ever found yourself in a room with the old fool, the werewolf, the mongrel, that Potter, Lily, a few more members of that blasted order and Snape walked in to announce that he had taken the dark mark and now they would be able to know more about my plans you would at least suspect something was amiss. No? Oh, well, my mistake"

"Master…" wormtail started to say only to be cut by Snape.

"Why? Why did Dumbledore took Lily away from me? We were happy, we were going to get married and have a baby. What could he profit from this?" Snape already knew the answers to these questions, but he also knew that it would be easier for Harry to accept reality if he heard what really happened from someone else who was there then from him.

"We did you a favour!" said wormtail jumping to his feet and moving closer to Snape "_Maybe I can still make an ally out of him, the boy will be mad at me, nothing new here, but I can get Snape on my side and he will help me get out of this one before the Dark Lord kills me or I just might create enough confusion to sneak out of here_".

"A favour?" said Snape raising a brow, he could feel Harry tensing up by his side and placed a hand on his arm under the table so Pettigrew wouldn't see it, silently telling him to hold still.

"The girl was a slut, Severus. Every boy at Hogwarts had her, the baby could have been anyone's. We wouldn't let you tie yourself to the likes of her. Sorry, Harry, she was no good that one"

Harry felt his blood begin to boil and Snape's grip on his arm grew tighter.

"So, because Dumbledore had my best interest at heart he 'took' her away from me…"

"Yes, so you wouldn't get hurt by that…"

"and 'gave' her to his faithful lap dog, Potter and at the same time made me take the dark mark and became a spy… so I wouldn't get hurt. Is that it?"

Harry couldn't take any longer, he jumped to his feet, wand in hand ready to curse the rat in to oblivion. Everything happened too fast in the next seconds, just as soon as he as up Harry felt two strong arms holding him back while his wand went flying in to Voldemort's stretched hand.

Seeing his chance, wormtail made a run to the door only to fall, face first to the floor, under a full body bind spell casted by one of the Death Eaters.

"Harry, no" said Snape holding him tight "No, son. That's what he wants. He will do that a lot, lie to us in order to try to save himself. Your mother was the nicest person I've ever met, she was kind and sweet to everybody but she never let anyone take that kind of liberty with her. I was the only one she ever dated and Pettegrew knows it. I loved her more than anything in the world"

Harry relaxed in the embrace, letting his father pull him closer.

"Dumbledore said it was very hard to make you forget her and that it also took a potion to make her forget you" Harry said turning his head to look at his father's face for the first time.

"It did?" Snape felt a lump in his throat. Somehow it was nice to know they had fought not to forget each other.

Their attention was caught by the Dark Lord moving closer to the binded form of the rat man.

"Peter, Peter" he said shaking his head. "Now, that was a mistake. Not your first, I admit, but you see… I don't like you talking about my daughter like this. _Crucio_."

For the first time in his life, Harry didn't feel sorry for someone being held under crucio. He simple let his head rest at his fathers shoulder, wrapping his arms around the older man and waited for Voldemort to lift the curse.

Voldemort kept the rat man in pain for almost a minute. He wanted to go longer, but there were more pressing matters at the moment and time was running short. He was happy to see that Harry was hugging Severus back, the meeting was already going better than expected. He walked over to the two man, letting his Death Eaters deal with wormtail.

"Harry" he said softly "There is a lot more for us to talk about it and a lot more to extract from the rat, but I feel it would be best for us to take one step at the time. Dumbledore will already sense that you are troubled and you know how dangerous that can be"

"I want to know everything"

"And you will" said Snape still holding Harry "I promise. We will resume our oclumency lessons and you'll learn how to hide everything in your mind so Dumbledore won't know what you know, then I'll tell you everything. Can you accept these terms?"

Harry looked at Snape, his father. He hated not knowing something and he had always been mad about it in the past, but for the first time he had a reason wait for the whole truth. He needed to know how to hide it from Dumbledore and he could see how dangerous the situation really was.

"You'll tell me everything?"

"As soon as you master occlumency" repeated Snape.

"You will know the whole truth, Harry. I've already promised you that" said Voldemort.

"Ok" Harry agreed and then he remembered something "Oh, I told the Order Voldemort knew you are a spy and that he had summoned you. Lupin went after you at Hogwarts but you were already gone… I said wormtail had been summoned too so Dumbledore wouldn't be too suspicious why he wasn't at the garden"

"Good" said Voldemort "Severus, you were tortured but managed to prove your loyalty, Pettigrew however failed but he died before you could discover if he was realy a spy or not… one Death Eater got carried away while casting curses on the rat. I punished the man of course, but now the rat is dead and whatever secrets he knew he took with him. Harry, you didn't see anything else. Let's not have you lying in front of Dumbledore any more than is absolutely necessary. Understood?

Harry and Snape nodded, still holding each other as if they were trying to make up for the lost time. Snape's hand was moving up and down Harry's back in a comforting manner. Harry felt glad for the support.

"Now, Harry, perhaps is time for you to be getting back, we don't want to raise any suspicious just yet. Do we? Just one more thing" said Voldemort pulling a small box from one of his pockets "this ring is a portkey to my house. Our family house. If you find yourself in trouble over there, come to me. I'll won't tell you not to get in any trouble… even I know you better than that, but I want you to have a safe way out at any case"

Harry couldn't help but smile, who would expect a grandfather attitude from Voldemort himself. He took the box with the ring, slipping it in his pocket as the Death Eaters picked up wormtail from the floor and apparated away.

The hooded figure stood up and came closer to the three man handing the vial she was still holding to Snape.

"What is that?" asked Harry.

"Veritaserum" answered Voldemort "We were going to use it today, but it would have been too much for you to hide. Don't worry, that will be plenty of opportunities to use it later. Well, we will be on our way" he said taking the hooded figure's hand, with her other hand the hooded figure uncovered her head and Harry could not hide his surprise.

"Professor Trelaway?"

She simply smiled and kissed him gently on his face.

"Hello, dear. I do hope you come to see us soon. I'll tell you my story then… oh! And don't worry. You are not going to die anytime soon" she said winking her eye at him.

"Severus, don't hold him here too long. We will be waiting for you at the library" said Voldemort right before he and Trelaway disappeared.

"Is she a Death Eater too?" Harry asked

"No, she has just became a ally. As a matter of fact, she was the one who helped me remember your mother. Harry, you can trust her… I think. I'm still not sure she is completely sane" Snape said with half a smile making . Harry smiled too, but he soon frowned.

"You don't have to go right now. Do you?"

Harry wanted to remain with Snape for a little longer, he just couldn't bring himself to trust Voldemort yet and the thought of leaving his father alone with the Dark Lord was not very calming, even if his father had been the bane of his existence at Hogwarts.

"Nonsense, Harry" said Snape... his father, Severus Snape, with a smile "I assure you I'll be in no real danger, the Dark Lord values his family way too much"

"and now you're family and he would never hurt you?" asked Harry raising his eye brow.

"No, I'm afraid not" said his father laughing softly "He would still curse me in a heart beat, but you are his family and he wants you by his side, that's why I'm safe".

"You are safe as long as I give in to him" Harry said bitterly

"No, I'm safe as long as he knows he has a fair chance of getting close to you and that you are willing to get to know him before turning his back on him for good" said his father putting his arm around Harry's shoulder "He is still ruthless, Harry, make no mistake on that, he won't even try to fool you in believing something different, but he is not the mad man you were led to believe"

"I don't know..."

"Make no decisions now, Harry. Give yourself some time, get to know him better, get to know me better, learn the whole truth, then we'll see what happens. How is that for a plan?"

"Yeah" sigh Harry "I can live with that"

"Good, now we are running out of time, you will would soon be missed and this place will be crawling with members of the order. It's time to go back. We will see each other soon"

Noticing that was an argument he could not win Harry said his good byes and ran out of the Leaky Cauldron. He went in the first store he found, it was a jewellery store and bought Ron a gold pendant in the shape of a snitch. It was hollow and you could put two pictures inside of it. Harry quickly found a number of a teens magazine with his picture on it and cut it, adding it to the little snitch. Now that he had Ron's gift he ran back to meet Tonks and apparate back at Grimmaud Place, they were just in time for lunch.

Right after lunch Mrs. Weasley announced she wanted to go back home. They had been away to long and there were thing that needed taking care of back at the Burrows. It was decided that she would go back with her boys to get everything ready and later that evening Ginny, Harry and Hermione would join them when Mr. Weasley went home from work.

Harry stood in near the front door as the four Weasleys prepared to leave. He hugged Ron tight, noticing Hermione looking the other way with a strange look on her face... she was almost smiling and there was a strange glow in her eyes. In a moments decision he discreetly made Shadow crawl from his arm to Ron's.

"Shadow, go with him. Keep him safe for me"

"Don't worry, Master. I'll take care of your mate for you" said Shadow curling around Ron's arm.

"What did you say to her?" Ron asked just a bit uneasy with the idea of having a snake on him even if it was Shadow.

"_Merlim, I hope he never finds out how or from whom did I got Shadow_"

"I asked her to protect you. She promised me she would. Keep her with you, will ya?"

"Don't worry, love. I just going home, we'll see each other in no time" said Ron stepping out side with the twins "We'll see each other tonight"

Molly hugged Harry, kissing his head. "See you Tonight, Harry dear".

"Sure, Mrs. Weasley. See you tonight" said Harry feeling his heart heavy and a sense of growing danger nagging him. He watched the four of them apparate away before turning back, once again he notice the strange satisfied look on Hermione's face.

"So... Harry, do you want to play something?" she said, the odd look was gone.

"Hum... sure. How about chess?" Harry felt it would be better to keep a close watch on his 'best friend'.

"Ok" and they went upstairs to play while Harry kept checking on Shadow through the bond making sure everybody was alright.

Harry had no problem maintaining a civil conversation with Hermione, pretending to enjoy their time together as they set the board to begin their game when all of the sudden Harry heard Shadow start yelling in his mind. He made a hasty excuse to Hermione saying he had to run to the bathroom and ran upstairs.

He quickly went through his options. Dumbledore was probably watching the floo network, Hedwige was not fast enough to get help. He could not disappear was Hermione was keeping an eye on him... how could he send a message? He scribbled a few words as fast as he could and ran to Ginny's room.

"Ginny, I need you to trust me and do something for me now, I don't have time to explain" Harry said bursting in the room making Ginny jump from the bed were she was laying with a book.

"Harry, what happened?"

"No time, here, take this note and this ring, it's a portkey, once you arrive I want you to deliver this note to... _Merlin, she will faint if I say Voldemort or a Death Eater..._ either Snape or Trelaway, It doesn't matter who is in front of you when you arrive, say it's from me and it is urgent, please don't hesitate, no matter who is in front of you it will be a friend" Harry said in a hurry while pushing the girl downstairs and through the front door "Ginny, it's a matter of live and death. Do.Not.Hesitate. Understand?"

"Don't worry, Harry, but you own me some serious explanations after this" said Ginny putting the ring on and apparating away.

"You have no idea" sighed Harry heading back inside to play with Hermione as if nothing had happened.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 13**

Molly was barricading herself on the garage, she knew it wouldn't hold much longer and she started to calculate a way out of that mess. She was unharmed, so was Fred, but George's leg had been seriously hit and Ron was severely hurt and getting worse by the minute. They had to do something fast.

They had arrived at the Burrows only a few minutes before, apparating on the front yard to celebrate Ron's new apparating licence. Arthur was coming later by floo with Ginny after he got out of the office.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Ron got hit by a spell and fell to the ground. If it wasn't for the twins they would all have fallen by now. They reacted faster than Molly could think and started to cast spells on the attackers as she dragged Ron to the closest shelter. The garage. She had caught a glimpse of them before the twins manage to close the double doors. Death Eaters.

"We have to do something, get out of here or ask for help." She could hear Fred saying while George was checking Ron "We can't simply stay put and wait for them to..."

BOOM!

The side wall was blown away, leaving the way open for three Death Eaters to step inside shooting spells in at the Weasleys who were taken too much by surprise to react in time to do something. In a matter of seconds they were all immobilised on the floor.

"Well, look what we have here" said one of the hooded figures

"Potter is not here" said another.

"It doesn't matter. We kill these ones and get Potter some other day" said the third, who seemed to be the boss.

"hehehe, where do we start? How about the twins? Do you think they will react the same way to the curse?"

"Don't be silly. We start with Potter's little pet here" said the boss pointing his wand at Ron "Let's make sure we send a clear message for that brat"

Molly whimpered as she tried to break the bonds to protect her child. Tears were falling free from her eyes but somehow see never saw clear in her life. Her son was barely conscious on the floor while a wand was dangerously pointing at his heart, the twins struggling on her other side, with another wand pointed at them and a third Death Eater was standing almost in from of her, also pointing his wand.

Molly Weasley was not the kind of woman who would let any child be hurt, let alone one of hers. She could feel her magic fighting the bonds holding her down and for a second she was almost convinced she was succeeding, but she could not get herself free. Starting to panic she notice something that made her heart miss a bit, crawling out of Ron's robes was a black snake. Her mind started to race even faster.

"_Did Ron get bit? Is it poisonous? I don't remember ever seeing a snake like this one, did they bring it with them?..._

Her thoughts were cut short by the Death Eater standing on top of Ron. He aimed his wand and started to cast a spell, but the snake seemed to realise something was going on disappearing inside his robes and before anyone could react the man shouted.

"Argh! Something bit me. Something is biting my leg... " and he started to jump up and down around the garage, his companions turning to him to try and understand what was going on.

Molly though that was a good opportunity to turn the table if they could get free, but before they manage to throw the spell off she saw them. Behind the first three Death Eaters, who were to busy finding out what was going on, another five apparated, wands drawn, masks in place, robes billowing around them as they made their way to the garage.

"_Oh, Merlin, please, not like this. Please, just one more chance to fight, let me save my children. I'll do anything. Let me save them"_

She was so caught up in her prayer that it took her a moment to realise what was happening. The new arrivals shot spells at the Death Eaters and standing over the prisoners and quickly remove the binding spells holding them. Three of the new ones started to tie the first ones together while the other two started to check the Fred and Ron.

The Death Eater checking Fred removed his mask. It was Snape. The Weasleys calmed down after seeing his face. It had to be a group from the order to rescue them. Snape handed a potion to Fred without saying a word and performed a healing charm on his leg.

"Snape, what happened?" asked George helping his brother to sit up and drink the potion.

"How is he?" Molly asked the same time to the hooded figure checking Ron. She gasped as Lucius Malfoy took off his mask.

"Severus. This one is seriously hurt, I can't figure out what they used on him"

"Malfoy!" The three Weasleys shouted at the same time "Snape! What is going on here?"

Snape moved to Ron's side casting detection spells to figure out what was wrong with his son's boyfriend.

"Lucius, If you please be so kind to explain, I believe we have to move. We don't have much time" he said without taking his eyes out of Ron's unconscious form.

"Mrs. Weasley, boys" Said Lucius in a very polite tone "I'm afraid you been lied to"

"What do you mean? What is going on?" asked Molly very aware of the fact the their wands were being pocketed by the Death Eaters. They were still defenceless.

"Perhaps knowing who your attackers really are would help. Humm?" Lucius said, gesturing for the others Death Eaters to remove the mask of the ones on the floor.

"Oh! Alastor! Mundungus! Kingsley! What is going on here? Since when have you became Death Eaters?" Molly shouted.

"They are not Death Eaters, Mrs. Weasley" said Lucius calmly "We are"

"What?" Molly was frantic, nothing made sense anymore.

Snape got up and made a gesture to the others Death Eaters, one of them pick up Ron, while Lucius help Molly getting up before lending a helping hand to George, who was helping Fred, the two others pick up the false Death Eaters, Kingsley was unconscious for some reason and before the Weasleys could realise what was happening they felt the familiar tug on their bellybuttons and they all disappeared.

----------

Ginny was ready to faint, a few minutes ago she was reading a book in her room at the OotP headquarters when Harry ran in asking for a favor and now she was sitting in a large sofa with a cup of tea in from of her and the Dark Lord himself sitting not ten feet away from her. How did that happen?

**flashback**

Ginny felt a tug behind her navel and felt herself being pulled, in a moment she was standing in the middle of what looked like living room, a very expensive living room judging by the décor. No one was around.

"This must be another hideout for the Order… a much nicer one. How come we don't use this one as a headquarter? I bet there is a lot more rooms in this place that at Grimmaud, if the size of this one if anything to judge from. Now, where Snape or Trelaway could be. Harry did say it was urgent" she mused in a heartbeat while looking around and deciding that yelling was the best option.

"PROFESSOR SNAPE! PROFESSOR TRELAWAY! HARRY NEEDS HELP" Ginny started yelling as she moved to one of the double doors, before she got there the door opened and Snape came running in. Ginny was to too busy handing him the note to notice more people coming in the room "Professor, it's from Harry, he said it was a matter of life or death"

Snape took the note from the girl and read it, turning around to talk to someone standing behind him.

"My lord. Harry's boyfriend is being attacked as we speak"

The hair on the back of Ginny's neck stood still as she notice who else was in the room. From where she was standing she could see Snape, Lucius Malfoy and at least four others she recognise as Death Eaters…

"_Wait! What did Snape just say? Harry's boyfriend? Ron is Harry's boyfriend. Ron is under attack? Who…_ a voice made her shut her mouth before she utter any of her questions. She had never heard that voice before, but she knew without a doubt who was speaking. She knew exactly who was in that very same room with her.

"Snape, Malfoy, Avery and you two, go now and make sure the boy is save, and I want to know who is behind the attack. GO!"

Snape and the others bowed and apparated away. Now there was no one standing between Ginny and the wizard she prayed everyday to never see again in her live. She was too scared to even begin to wonder how come Harry had send her here, that Ron was under attack and that she had no way of getting out of wherever she was. Everything but mind nubbin fear faded away.

She barely register someone standing next to her and never felt Trelaway putting an arm around her shoulder and stirring her towards one of the sofas where they sat side by side as the teacher said.

"Come now, child, there is nothing we can do. Let's have a cup of tea while we wait for them to return"

Ginny sat there with the cup of tea in front of her getting colder while she could not bring herself to tear her eyes way from the wizard sitting not ten feet way from her.

**End of Flashback**

**Chapter 14**

Molly Weasley felt the tug of the portkey and landed in a richly furnished room, which was not what she was expecting. She was expecting a small, humid, dark cell where she would be thrown with her children and left there with their injures unattended until they decide on how to dispose or torture them.

She was very surprised when nothing of the sort happened. They were greeted by two med-witches who took orders from a very attentive professor Snape placing George and Ron in immaculate white beds while she and Fred received a dose of calming drought each. Then they were allowed to sit and watch the preliminary exams before they were taken next door in to a sitting room where they were told they could wait for news on the boys conditions.

"_Maybe this is a very expensive hospital and Harry arranged for us to came here_" she thought.

She and Fred stayed there for almost ten minutes before the door on the other side of the room opened. Lifting her head Molly saw a well dressed woman bringing a red head girl by the hand. It actually took her a few seconds to recognise her own daughter.

"_Oh! The calming draught did take effect, that's nice_"

Ginny sat by her mother on the sofa, shivering. Molly absented minded put one arm around her daughter, not noticing Malfoy and Avery, who were just coming in the room, bowing before a strange looking man at the corner and begin talking amongst themselves.

Harry was sitting on his bed reading a book when he heard a soft know at the window. An owl he had never seen before was there with a note attached to her claw. He quickly opened the window letting her in and grabbed the note.

_Harry, _

Big party. You better came this time or else.  
No excuses will be accepted.  
See you, little brother.

There was no signature, but Harry knew the handwriting and the real meaning of the note. Something went wrong with the Weasleys, big time. Something that needed his attention and he was needed in person. He was not supposed to let anyone stop him.

"_Merlin, the attack… someone is hurt… RON_" and in a heartbeat Harry was out of the bedroom under his invisibility cloak, locking the door and putting a silence spell so anybody looking for him would assume he was sleeping inside, and out of the front door, from where he could apparate strait in to the twins shop.

There were two Death Eaters waiting for him. They bowed their heads and handed him a cup without saying a word. Harry knew it was a portkey the moment he laid eyes on it. He took the cup and felt the usual tug behind his navel. His head was spinning with the rapid pace everything was happening, in one moment he was sitting in his room waiting for some news, any news, and a second later he was being taken… to his grandfather.

Voldemort stood in a large and luxurious sitting room. Lucius and Avery, the man who had almost killed buckbeak, were talking to him in hushed tones. Voldemort simply nodded at Harry, who nodded back, quickly scanning the room for Ron.

Molly Weasley was sitting in a sofa holding Ginny in one arm, Trelaway was sitting in a chair by her side petting her hand and Fred (or George) was pacing in front of a door, throwing worried looks at the three man talking on the other side of the room. When he saw Harry he hurried to his side.

"Harry, mate, you came!"

"Of course, I came. Where is Ron?"

"In that room with Snape and some med-witch… Harry, did you notice You-know-who standing right over there?" George, or Fred, asked pulling Harry by the arm.

"George…"

"Fred. George is in there too, he got hit"

"Sorry. Fred. It's ok. We are safe in here. He won't hurt anybody and there is a lot more going on that you could possibly dream about it. I promise I'll explain everything later. Now tell me how is Ron and George"

"Well" Fred said running his hand through his hair tiredly "George got hit on his leg, I have no idea by what kind of curse. He was in a lot of pain but Snape is drowning him in potions, so he should be ok… We just don't know about Ron"

"What do you mean you just don't know? Fred, what happened to Ron?" Harry was yelling now, grabbing Fred by the front of his robes and shaking him until Lucius and Avery took him by his arms and held him still while Voldemort put his arm around a very shaky Fred Weasley.

"It's ok, young mister Weasley. Go sit by your mother and let me handle Harry here"

Shocked by the Dark Lord's touch and all the events of the day, Fred couldn't bring himself to say anything. He walked over to his mother, who was still strangely calm through this whole thing, and sat by Ginny's side. The fact that they were still wandless in the presence of the Dark Lord didn't help any of them to calm themselves.

"Harry" said Voldemort forcing Harry to look at him "Severus and two very powerful med-witches are treating your boyfriend and his brother as we speak, they are doing everything that is possible and the best thing that we can do is to remain calm. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Tom" said Harry calming himself, there was nothing he could accomplish by force right now "Where is Shadow?"

"In the room. She refused to leave Mr. Weasley's side" Voldemort answered with a chuckle, signalling for his Death Eaters to release Harry "Let's offer some comfort to our dear Mrs. Weasley, shall we?"

"Yes, of course" Harry let Voldemort guide him to where the Weasleys were sitting and kneeled in front of Mrs. Weasley, who let go of Trelaway to hold his hand, pulling him closer.

"Oh, Harry, they got you too?"

"What? Oh! No, Mrs. Weasley nobody got us! We are safe here, I promise. Thrust me, we are safe"

"Safe? But, Harry…" the woman said gesturing towards the room where two of her children were healing from severe injures.

"I know, but it's ok. We are safe and as soon as we know how George and Ron are doing I'll explain everything"

The door leading to the room where Ron and George were being treated opened to let a very serious looking Snape came in to the room. Harry and the Weasleys held their breath.

"Severus, how are the young men?" asked the Dark Lord before anybody could speak.

"Well, Mr. George Weasley's leg will recover completely; there may be a mark, but nothing big. Mr. Ronald Weasley, I'm afraid, is still the same. We manage to stabilise his condition but he hasn't regain conscious. You may go inside, not everybody at the same time and I do advise you to be quiet at all times and let them rest now. They have been through a lot"

"Mrs. Weasley" said the Dark Lord, making the woman look at him "after you see you sons I would like a word with you in regards of what happened today. I assure you it will not go unpunished"

Molly nodded and walked in to the next room, taking Ginny with her. Fred stayed behind and as soon as the door closed behind them he turned around and faced Harry angrily.

"What the hell is going on in here? Why are you all comfortable with them? Ever since when do you side with death eaters? Why did you attack us? And why the hell is my mother not making a scene and yelling at everybody?" he kept coming toward Harry until he was restrained by Avery and forced to sit down again.

"Perhaps is time we have a little chat" said Voldemort sitting down at his side. Fred gulped and looked at him, thinking in how much trouble he got himself in to this time.

"Your mother, Mr. Weasley, have received a large dose of a very powerful calming draught because we are all very much aware of her temper and she just had two sons injured. What went on was an attempt on your brother's life by Dumbledore, you'll get prove of that later" said the Dark Lord raising his hand to stop Fred from bursting in to another tirade "Harry in comfortable because he knows no one here will cause any of you harm, my people just saved your lives if you haven't notice and as for taking sides, it would be wise to wait until after having all the facts before start making accusations. I believe that should answer all your questions for now, anything else will have to wait for a much more formal meeting. Has Mr. Weasley senior been contacted yet?"

"Yes, my lord, he will be arriving shortly. He still doesn't know to whom the house belongs"

"Good. It's probably best this way. We shall have this conversation on the dinning room".

"As you wish, my lord" said Avery bowing before he left the room.

"Harry" asked Fred "what is going on?"

"Fred, I think we better sit down, we still have a few minutes before we are allowed to see Ron and George anyway. I'll try to make this as short as I can" said Harry before he launched himself in a condensed as possible report of the events that had taken place since his birthday. His encounter with Voldemort, his gift, the bond, how he found out about Pettigrew's real betrayal, Dumbledore's plan, Hermione's part on it, the discovery of his father and the discovery of his grandfather (even though he hadn't accepted that one yet) "and believe me, I don't know the half of it, from what I can tell there is plenty more going on. The only good thing is that at least Voldemort seems to be willing to tell me everything, but still…"

Fred was dumbstruck. He knew Harry's life was complicated and that his adventures were always a bit (ok, a lot) more dangerous than the ones he and George had got themselves in to. He actually had envied Ron for getting himself involved in them, but now he was right in the middle of one of Harry's famous adventurous… and he would give anything to go back to the envy right now.

"What do we do now?"

"We wait for news on Ron and George and as soon as your father gets here we join everyone at the whatever room they said they would be and get all the facts together… then we strike back and make sure they hurt as much as we do" said Harry getting up and walking to the door of the room where Ron was unconscious. He was tired of waiting for news on his boyfriend, it was time to make things happen once and for all.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 15**

**Author's note: **  
Once more with feeling: 'I don't own anything, just the plot, don't sue.'

Voldemort called Harry aside before they entered the room where the Weasleys and a few others were already waiting for them.

"Harry, before we go in, there is something you need to know"

"Keeping things from me already, Tom?" Harry asked ironically

"Well, we talked exactly twice without trying to kill each other… there are things I haven't told you yet, but look at out time table" said Voldemort with a small smirks on his lips.

"Of course. I'm sorry. Do go on"

"Well, first you should know the reason I'm not trying to kill you…"

"I am your only descendent…" Harry interrupted only to be interrupted in return

"Which would mean absolutely nothing to me if it wasn't for the fact that if you die, I die. Not exactly an idea I cherish, you see"

"I do" said Harry beginning to understand the reasons behind the truce.

"Therefore you have no reason to fear an attack from me, it's in my best interest that you remain alive and well, enjoying a long and fruitful life"

"and as soon as I have a child you'll dispose of me, of course" Harry said in a as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Merlin forbid, no. I want you with as many children as you possibly can. I don't want to risk it… and by then you will no longer be a threat because you will always think of your family first so, no, I have no intention to kill you anymore"

"How nice of you" Harry couldn't help but be ironic.

"You said you wanted the truth. I'm giving it to you. Why? Can't you handle it? Do you prefer me to tell you some sugar coated lie?" Voldemort purred.

"No" Harry sighed "I can handle. Is there anything else?"

"You grandmother was… not welcoming my attentions when your mother was conceived"

"not welcoming you atten… you are not my grandfather?"

"Oh! You're my grandchild alright, but there were some violence involved, if you know what I mean"

Harry looked at him in doubt. Not fully understanding what was been said.

"I raped her, Harry" said Voldemort shaking his head in disbelieve.

"You what? Why are you telling me this?" it made no sense to Harry, wasn't this man suppose to try to gain his thrust? Why was he telling him these horrible things?

"I won't pretend to be nice, Harry, and I won't hide anything from you. Now you know how we ended up in the same family. Now you know all the facts. It was a long time ago and, if it makes any difference for you, I'll even apologize for it, but it means nothing to me"

"Then why tell me?"

"Because things will only get uglier from the moment we cross that door and I need to know now if you will be able to handle what is going to be said and not lose it like you did at the Leaky Cauldron. I promised you the truth but it doesn't mean I intend to sacrifice all my ambitions so you get what you want. If I feel you are behaving like the child Dumbledore wants you to be I will lie to you in order to keep you at my side. It's a question of knowing what you want. What do you want, Harry?"

Harry looked at Voldemort strait in the eyes, he could tell the Dark Lord was telling the truth and that he was being treated like a grown up like he always wanted since he never had the privilege of being a child.

"What you said was true?" he finally asked in a much calmer tone.

"Yes. Do you want me to apologize? Hold information until I think you are ready?"

"No. I don't like the idea of rape and we will get back on that, but it was over thirty years ago, no use in getting upset now. I can handle it and I can handle whatever they say inside"

"Good, Let's go in" and they walked in the room together. Ready to face whatever came their way.

In the large dinning room Arthur Weasley held his wife as she cried and told everyone of the attack, not noticing Harry and another man standing behind her. Harry wondered if he would ever see a stranger reunion. Sitting around the table he could see Arthur, Molly, Ginny, Fred and a very pale George with his still sore leg resting on another chair, next to them sat Lucius, Trelaway, Avery, Snape and two other Death Eaters he recognized from his visions but had no idea of their names. Harry sat at his side near the head of the table where Voldemort sat himself. Molly went quiet when she finally realized who was in front of her.

Snape was the one who broke the silence after receiving a nod from Voldemort.

"Well, I believe we all know what pressing matters brought this meeting on" said Snape "well, perhaps you, Arthur, could use some explaining"

"I…" Arthur Weasley started but he was at lost of words. He had come down to this place, wherever it was, to meet his wife that for some reason did not go home as planned, only to find two of his sons laying in hospital beds, his wife half drugged with calming draughts (always a good choice when taking the boys to the hospital), his daughter acting very strangely and Harry… Harry was sitting at you-know-who's side! And on top of all he had been there for almost one hour and Lucius Malfoy was being polite, no Death Eaters had tried to attack him or his family and everybody was talking like they were in some serious but friendly meeting, he was feeling completely lost "Yes, I believe I could".

Snape began to explain to Arthur everything that had happened. The shocking discoveries of Dumbledore secret agenda, Hermione's betrayal, Pettigrew's true master, Snape and Lily's relationship, their child and who Lily's father really was (carefully not mentioning the rape 'detail').

"No, I can't believe it. Dumbledore would never do such a thing, Severus, you know it" said Arthur getting to his feet, not caring about the room being half full with armed Death Eaters "They did it, they put a spell on you and Harry to make you believe this things. You know it's not true"

"We have witnesses. I'll give them veritaserum and you can ask whatever you want of them"

"Who?..."

"Pettigrew, Alastor and Mundungus." Answered Snape before he could finish the question

"What about Kingsley?" asked Molly before she could control herself.

"Well, apparently Shadow, Harry's pet, was a bit too protective of Mr. Ronald Weasley" answered the Dark Lord, making Molly shiver "Oh, please. Don't be alarmed. Harry here has told me you are like family to him and so you have my word no harm will be done to any of you"

"Why?..." Molly started only to be interrupted by Fred.

"Not now, mom. We are safe and I want to know what is going on as soon as possible" she looked at him ready to start arguing when she looked at George. Fred was right, they had been well treated so far and there were things they needed to know. She did something she never thought she would do as long as she lived; she looked at the Dark and nodded to him, allowing the meeting to go on.

"Very well" said Snape getting up "why don't we start with Pettigrew?" everybody in the room seemed to nod and Snape signalled the masked Death Eater at the door to bring the prisoner.

Wormtail was brought in the room with his hands tied, he looked tired and afraid but not too bruised for someone who was experiencing the hospitality of Voldemort's cells, even if for less than a day. The Death Eater who brought him in untied his hands and sat him in a chair facing the group at the table.

"_Less than a day_" though Harry "_Merlin, it was only this morning I met them in the Leaky Cauldron?_"

"Hello, Peter" greeted Voldemort.

"Master, please, let me explain" the rat begged.

"Oh, you will explain, you will explain everything. This conversation is long overdue, Peter, and to make sure I don't forget to ask anything my friends here will be assisting me tonight. I'm sure you remember the Weasleys, whose hospitality you enjoyed for so long, my associates, the ones you conspire to kill, Harry…you do remember the Potters, right? And you know Severus and his astonishing abilities, of course"

Pettigrew looked worriedly around the table to the people the Dark Lord was introducing before focussing his eyes on the potion master, who was carefully counting the drops of a potion as they fell in a goblet with water. Snape walked over to the shivering rat man and handed him the goblet without saying a word. Pettigrew looked around the room again hoping to find a friendly face to beg for help but the Death Eater side of the room was showing no emotions and the others were looking at him as if they were ready to snap his neck with their bare hands.

Seeing no way out and feeling the Dark Lord's gaze upon him, he drank the potion.

"Now tell me, Peter, what did you have to tell Dumbledore so badly that made you go to the Order's HQ?" asked Voldemort.

"I had to tell him that the seer had escaped and found her way here"

"Why is that so important?"

"She could escape the influence of the drugs and tell that the prophesy Harry heard was false."

"If the prophesy is false, why am I so important to Dumbledore?" asked Harry before he could stop himself. Voldemort gesture him to calm down and Harry nodded agreeing.

"Because the real prophesy said that you are the key to kill the Dark Lord. You are the one who has the power to kill him and if he kills you, he also dies. We win either way."

"Does he know why that is?" asked Voldemort.

"Yes" Harry, Voldemort and Snape held their breath, if Dumbledore knew Harry was in grave danger.

"Why?"

"The two of you are connected because of Lily's sacrifice" They sighed, Dumbledore had the wrong reason.

"What would happen to Harry if he did kill me?"

"Send him to Azkaban for murder, too powerful, make sure he dies in prison"

Harry noticed that after that answer Arthur snapped his head up looking at the rat man with wide eyes and Molly narrowed her eyes dangerously. If looks could kill Pettigrew would be a pile of dust right about now. Harry felt better, at least for now their feelings for him were still the same, he was still part of the family.

"Who are Harry's parents?"

"Lily Evans Potter and Severus Snape"

"What?"

"How?"

Several voices could be heard at once. Even Lucius and Avery who knew about Voldemort connection to Harry didn't know about Snape's and the news took almost all of the ones in the room by surprise.

"Why did Dumbledore decide to split Lily and Severus up?"

"Dumbledore needed a spy amongst the Death Eaters and we couldn't find a way in, my family was not important, nor powerful enough to call your attention. Severus came for Dumbledore's help. His family wanted him to join and he had already been invited but he was in love with a muggle born. She was pregnant and they wanted to get married, but he couldn't simple refuse to take the mark. Dumbledore decided that the chance was to good to go to waste, so he married Lily to James because of the baby and convinced Severus to became a spy"

"How did he do it?"

"Spell and potions, they wouldn't forget each other and we couldn't use the same drug we used on the seer because Lily was pregnant and Severus could not be drugged and still function normally"

"Why did you betray the Potters?"

"You wanted the child, you knew about part of the prophesy and knew enough to want the child dead. Dumbledore knew the child could probablysurvive an attack or you would both die and it was my chance to became a spy too, we needed more information."

"What about Hermione?" Harry whispered at Voldemort's ear.

"What role does Miss Granger plays on Dumbledore's plan?"

"Dumbledore wants her to be the next Minister of Magic. He is training her. She will bring wizards and muggles together and Dumbledore will rule over them all"

"How does he plan on making her the new minister?"

"She will be Harry's widow, the public opinion will support her as the surviving hero after Harry's death"

"What about Harry's relationship to Ron Weasley?"

"Kill the red head. Harry will be sad and open to her advances" Pettigrew started to blink as the potion lost its effect. His breath increased and he turned his teary eyes to Voldemort.

"My lord, please, have mercy. The old man had me under powerful spells, I swear I would never betray you. My lord…" he was dragged out of the room by the same death eaters who had brought him in. His pleading voice disappearing in the distance.

The room was silent. Everyone was considering what they had just heard. Dumbledore's manipulation and plans went far beyond what they had previously believed. Arthur was the first one to speak.

"Merlin. What is going on? How could we not see it?" his voice was shocked.

"That, Mr. Weasley, is what we are going to find out." Answered the Dark Lord and for the first time, Arthur Weasley looked up to him and did not shiver at the sight.

**Chapter 16  
**

"I can't believe it" said Molly.

"Believe it, Molly, It's true." Said Severus in a defeated tone, "the man I always regarded as a mentor took everything that mattered from me"

"Oh, Severus… I can't even imagine what is like for you, but it's so…" Molly was out of words. The things that had been said… the Albus Dumbledore she knew would never do those things.

"You will." Trelaway spoke for the first time.

"What?"

"You will understand how he feels, Molly Weasley, for you will feel the same"

Severus could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing up, Trelaway was looking strange… well, stranger, again. She was seeing something. The whole room had gone quiet, even the Dark Lord had his attention on the seer now.

"What do you mean, my dear?" he asked.

"She already lost one son for him. He took her son to work as spy because a third force is playing in this charade"

"What does she means? What son did I lose?" asked Molly panicking.

"Percy" Fred was the first to speak, he understood, he could see it, clear as water. "He is not in Dumblerore's side and he did not become a Death Eater. He works for the ministry"

"Yes, the third son. The power driven one. He turned his back on his own blood in order to serve his master. His new set of eyes" Trelaway was now playing with her necklace, a long silver chain with a miniature crystal ball attached to it. The little ball started to move on its own and emanate a soft bluish glow, tiny specks of yellow and red glow could be seeing dancing inside as Trelaway continued.

"He had the board all set, a prime position to choose his future players, a spy in his enemies house and a puppet doing what he was told in the main sit at the wizarding world, but the puppet cut out his strings" she laughed as if someone had told her a joke "Three sides once balanced and now the scale was tipping… "

Trelaway got up and stood besides Molly, running her hand absently minded on her head. When she spoke again everyone in the room held their breath, it was Dumbledore's voice they heard.

"The Weasley have enough children on their family, they won't take a big hit by the loss of one. The other families only have one or two children, if I pick one of them I lose the whole family in time, the Weasleys will remain faithful even after the loss of one or two of them. It our safest bet"

Trelaway suddenly turned around looking at the door, her voice went back to been her own.

"Oh, we just lost the second one"

Harry felt his heart stop, he refused to understand what she had just said. He forced the knowledge out of his mind, ignored with all his might. Trelaway did not say the last sentence, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley did not just ran out the door, the twins were not following them, Ginny was not following them. He was not moving, he was standing still, he was not running, he was not catching up with the twins who were moving slower because of the leg injure, he was not bypassing Mr. and Mrs. Weasley who were running with tears in their eyes, he was not bursting through the infirmary door … Ron was not lying there pale and still with his eyes closed. IT WAS NOT HAPPENING.

"Ron, wake up, Ron... RON, WAKE UP" someone was grabbing his shoulders, pulling him back, no, no. He was suppose to help Ron wake up, Ron was hurt and weak and would not wake up with strangers, they didn't know how to wake him up, but Ron would respond to him. They were all wrong, they were mistaken.

He could still feel hands trying to prevent him to get close to Ron. He had to get back. He had to get free and help Ron. The hands were NOT helping and he had to push them away to get back.

He was almost unaware of some voices sounding on his ear, someone was shouting. Molly was kneeling at Ron's bed crying, no, she was mistaken, she was giving up, someone had to shake Ron and he would wake up, sometimes doctors made mistake, Ron was not gone, Ron was there, Ron was laying right there.

Snape was standing in front of him, blood running down his face from his nose. He raised his wand and pointed at Harry. A brief flash of light and Harry felt the world falling in to the most blessed, silence and painless darkness he never knew.

---------

Harry woke up feeling sore all over and feeling his mouth dry. He tried to get up but a gentle hand held him down and he felt a vial pressed to his lips.

"Drink this, son" he recognized his father's voice and gulped down the potion. He began to feel a little better and looked around the room. He was laying in one of the beds in the infirmary, the lights were low but he could still see that all the other beds were empty.

He could hear muffled voices. He turned his head to the end of the room, Mrs. Weasley was sitting with one of the med-witches, they had tea cups in their hands and he could see that they both crying while they talked. Other voices could be heard from the other side of the open doors. He looked at his father, who was still holding his hand.

"What happened?"

"You lost control when we found out about Ron. You started to yell and wouldn't let us get near him, we try to hold you but you put up a hell of a fight… broke my nose, for one thing. We… I had to _stupefy_ you to keep you from hurting yourself or anybody else"

"I'm sorry… but, Ron. Is he…?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. The curse he was hit with was very powerful, we simply did not have the cure"

Harry started to cry softly. He felt like someone was slowly ripping his heart out of his chest. It didn't physically hurt, but at the same time he had never felt so much pain in his life. Strong, protective arms wrapped around him and he felt himself been rocked back and forward. He heard Molly specking from a long distance saying it would be ok. He curled in her embrace, inhaling her scent, the scent of Ron, of the Burrows, of home, and he never felt more alone in his life.

Snape watched his son cry in to the red headed woman's embrace for a moment before letting her know that he was going in to the other room. She nodded and continued to rock Harry in her arms.

"_They need each other right now more than anything, I wish I could find comfort so easily_"

He left the infirmary and joined the twins who standing just outside the door, watching their father and sister talk to the Dark Lord and Lucius Malfoy.

"What is going on?"

"They are apologizing to Ginny for the trouble in her first year, you know with the diary and the chamber of secrets" said a very serious looking twin, Snape looked at them, he had never seen them so serious or so quiet.

"Why are they doing it now?" asked Snape.

"Ginny was not well, she was… in shock, I guess" said George… or Fred "They wanted to make her get over it"

"Lucius even apologized to dad, in front of everyone. Shook his hand and everything" added the other one "I guess they are really trying to patch up the way between them"

"Yes, it will be vital that we stay together now" said Snape.

"Why? What happens now?" asked one of the twins, the answer came from the door.

"We find more about Dumbledore's plan and why they did this to Ron" Harry was standing by the door holding Molly in his arms. They both had tears in their eyes, but Harry also had anger.

He took Molly to the other side of the room where the men stood up when they approached.

"Mrs. Weasley, I would like to formally introduce you to my grandfather. Tom Riddler. Tom, this is Molly Weasley, she was like a mother to me for the last six years and is the mother of my boyfriend"

Voldemort notice the use of his old name and the fact that Harry had said "is" instead of "was" when he talked about his boyfriend. One exchanged look with his grandson and he understood he was doing it for the woman's sake, there was a hardness in Harry's eyes that wasn't there before and at that moment he knew.

His grandson was finally home.

----------

Narcisa Malfoy was sitting in her privet office in her manor. As Lady Malfoy, she had a number of social duties that demanded her constant attention. Right now she was answering several R.V.S. P. invitations and going over next weeks menu as well as dealing with several small matters that needed her attention around the house. She liked to do everything at once, leaving the rest of her week free for other activities and the occasional emergency that could pop up unannounced.

Her emergencies were usually a last minute necessities around the house, something getting broken, someone arriving unexpectedly and the last minute party/reception/basket of flowers needed because of that.

She, every now and then, had a different kind of emergency. The Dark Lord had, on occasion, call upon her to do something and she happily obliged. Therefore, when the dark owl came to her window, she was not overly surprised and, with a sense of self importance, she took the letter from the owl and began to read. Now, that was unexpected!

She putted away a few papers in secret compartments in her desk and send a house-elf to find her son, they were been expected in the Riddler Mansion right way.

---------

Harry made sure Molly and Ginny were feeling comfortable enough with Voldemort, who was proving to be an exceptional host, letting his guest feel at easy with him, before indicating the group standing by the infirmary door to Lucius with his head. Arthur Weasley notice the exchange and followed them when they left.

"Mr. Weasley, maybe you would like to stay out of this one" said Harry.

"Why?" snapped Arthur.

"Because we are going downstairs and we are going to do whatever it takes to find out everything we can about Dumbledore's plan" answered one of the twins.

Lucius looked at Severus for confirmation and the potion master nodded. They were really going and right now the youngsters were looking for more than just answers, they also wanted to exact a little revenge. Arthur Weasley shook his head.

"No, not alone you are not. Ron was my son… my little one" he started to cry and to everybody's surprise it was Lucius who put his arms around the man. "I'm not going to just sit up here and be informed of why was my son murdered latter. I'm coming with you"

Harry wanted to protest, but one look from his father made him shut up. He could see the looks the three older wizards were exchanging between them, they spoke volumes. The six of them silently left the room as Trelaway walked in, making her way to where Voldemort was sitting with Ginny and Molly, a house elf was following her with a tray of tea. The young Miss Weasley had not eaten anything since she had got here, it was time to chance that.

Trelaway smiled at the women sitting at the fancy couch as the tea was served. She helped Mrs. Weasley convince her daughter to eat something and smile again, half because Ginny was finally relaxing enough to eat and half because at that moment, the men had reach the cell were the Death Eaters impersonators were, her gift was tingling with the knowledge of the amount of pain was in store for Dumbledore's men.

In a moment she would have excuse herself, Narcisa Malfoy and her son would be there and she would take the blond boy to join the men downstairs. An important meeting was about to happen and she was just in the right position to watch a new chapter in history to happen.

The four young men would change the face of the world, if everything went the way she planned, and she wanted to make sure everything was in place for that to happen. Everything in the right place for the down fall of Dumbledore.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 17**

**Author's note: **  
Yes, I know, I know, I was sad to kill him too, but it was necessary.

**and** this up date is the last one of my old chapters. I'm working on chapter 19 but real live is running hot on my heels and sometimes I simply lack the energy to turn on the pc, but I NEVER ABANDON A FIC. Don't worry, the up dates might be slow, but they are coming.

And again: I don't own anything, really, not even in the real world so, don't sue.

--------

Narcisa and Draco stepped out of the fireplace gracefully. They had been to Riddler Mansion quite a few time and knew their way around. They were greeted by the guards as usual. There was always two Death Eaters guarding each entrance to the Manor, the floo was no exception.

There were a few surprises, however. The hallways were much brighter than usual and there were a lot more people coming and going. A lot was going on tonight and no one had said a word about an upcoming attack, which was odd, more than once a party at Malfoy Manor had been used to give fellow Death Eaters alibis.

They were led towards the Riddle infirmary and exchanged worried glances. Maybe Lucius was hurt. But once they entered the waiting room their guide took them to the far end of the room where they could see the Dark Lord talking to three women. Two of them with flaming red hair.

Narcisa could easily recognise them, Weasles.

"_What are they doing here? Why is the Dark Lord talking so nicely to them?_"

Years of social knowledge were working in her favour, she greeted them all amicably, taking her hint from the way the Dark Lord was treating them. He introduced her to the third woman, Sibil Trelaway, the name did sound familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it. Draco was the one who solved the mystery for her.

"Mrs. Weasley, Miss Weasley, Professor Trelaway"

The two red heads were a mess, their faces were red and swollen like they had been crying for hours… which was not unusual or unexpected, but they were not in the dungeons, didn't seem to be hurt, there were no blood anywhere, nor chains and… did they had tea cups on their hands? Draco was at lost.

"Ah! Mrs. Malfoy, young Draco, how nice of you to join us in such short notice" the Dark Lord was being… civil? Narcisa started to feel a sting of fear. The Dark Lord was never civil unless he was about to became extra vicious with you.

"We come as soon as we received your message, my lord" said Narcisa as she and Draco bowed.

"Yes, and I am in great need of your assistance, my dear lady Malfoy. Sibil, dear, would you escort young Mr. Malfoy here to see his father. I don't think he will be particularly entertained with our conversation here. The matters discussed downstairs will be much more of his liking."

Narcisa froze and felt Draco tense under her hand. He was been taken to the dungeons, way from her and in to a chamber of torture. If the Dark lord wished he could be held down there suffering for days, and if Lucius had done something wrong in the Dark lord eyes… he would have no second thoughts about inflicting on the son the punishment for the father, but there was no backing up now.

She watched as her son and the professor left the room and turned her attention to the trio sitting in front of her, maybe she could do something to undo whatever it was that made the Dark lord send Draco to the dungeons.

"Mrs. Malfoy" started the Dark lord "the reason I called you here is because I need a clear and collected mind to help me find a solution for a delicate matter"

"How may I help my lord?"

"You see, Mrs. Weasley here just suffer a terrible loss…" Narcisa felt her worse nightmares were about to come true "and since you so well no how to make the general public believe on your version of the story, we would like you to help our dear friend here to… share a more ministry friendly version of the facts"

Narcisa took a few seconds to fully understand what was been said. There was no punishment, no anger to be dealt with, she was there because the Dark Lord needed her expertise in cover ups. She felt the iron grip around her heart began to loosen and she regained her usual poise as she gathered the details she needed to… adapt the facts.

"So" Narcisa thought over what she had heard and filtered the facts she needed "Dumbledore manipulated Harry's life even before it had begun. Set up a girl to become his love interest and when that didn't work out he…" she turned to Molly, her new friend as it seems "I'm sorry to put it in such crude terms, dear… took out the competition?"

"Exactly" said the Dark Lord.

"and now, if we are to do something about it we have to find a way to hide from him that we know all about his participation in the attack…"

The Dark Lord nodded.

"but he does know that there was an attack, so we need to give him some results… and since he is the headmaster we can not hide the passing of one of his students from him"

Narcisa took a sip from her tea thinking about the problem before her. They had one dead body, one injured young man and the girl in front of her had reached her limit. What could it be done?

"I know I will sound terribly cold hearted but here is what I think we should do: There is a reception tonight on the Ministry. You and your husband have to be there"

"What?" said Molly shocked.

"It's a very important reception for the French Ministry of magic. In this reception there will be an incident and your husband will solve it… don't worry I've known Marcel for years, it can be arranged, he is also a faithful follower"

"That is true, but I don't see how this will help, my dear" said the Dark Lord.

"Molly, you never went home because you went to buy yourself a new dress… a present from the twins who now have a rather successful store. You went from… wherever you were to the twins shop were you got the message from your husband, you send your youngest home to get things ready and went to buy your dress, you have no idea what happened yet"

"but…" Molly was still confused.

"No, dear, let me finished" said Narcisa holding her hand "since your husband will make such a good impression tonight, he will be nominated the Liaison Officer to our friends in the continent. Then you will go home to find the horrible news, the young man injured may attest it was a Death Eater attack and you will be heart broken, Mr. Potter will be terribly distraught and so on and so forth… since Ginny took it so badly she will need to get away for awhile and as the new Liaison officer your husband will be offered to take her to Beaux Battoux for the next school year. Let's face it, it has been quite a lot for her to handle so far, if we put her in front of Dumbledore she will crack, besides it is a lovely school for any young lady" she said smiling at Ginny. Everything on the girl screamed liability, it was actually for the best if she went away. One look at the Dark Lord showed her she had said the write thing, he wasn't comfortable with the though of sending the girl back to Dumbledore the way she was.

"I don't know…" Molly started, but the Dark Lord settle the question.

"It will put her out of danger, Molly" and that was it. Ginny was going to France.

"Well, now we took care of why Molly wasn't there, Ginny's safety…" said Narcisa "_and refinement_" she thought before going on "the injure and the casualty… let's see… why didn't the attackers go back to Dumbledore? Why did they leave one alive? Well, this one is easy, so they could be identified as Death Eaters… or… someone arrived and they had to leave early. Molly, who could have arrived at your house and cause the attack to stop?"

"Remus Lupin" said a voice from the door.

"He would never agree, Sibil" said Molly as Trelaway made her way to the group.

"He would if he knew everything. Do I have your permition, my lord, to seek him and bring him in to the fold?"

"Do you think it is wise, seer?"

"Yes, my lord. He will be a powerful ally."

"Then do it. Bring him before me before the night is over so the whole wizard world can read about the horrible new attack of the Death Eaters in a lovely wizard family"

Trelaway bowed and left, leaving the three of them to elaborate more the story they would be presenting to the world. Ginny was laying with her head on Molly's lap, finally beaten by the sleeping draught they had slip her in her tea.

"That will take care of part of the problem. Now, Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley have to go back or their absence will be noted. Molly needs a new dress. One or both of the twins and… well, Ron, needed to be at the Burrows to be discovered by… auros, we have to find a way to send a distress signal, well, I suppose that after loosing the 'Death Eaters', Mr. Lupin could go back and get help. No problem there. We will send Mrs. Tawer with him, being a med-witch would explain the healing in the wounds. She could be his date or something… and the attacker… oh, well, they simply disappeared. Let Dumbledore worry about them"

"Yes, that is very satisfactory. We will go with that plan" said the Dark Lord "Now, if you ladies excuse me, I have an interrogatory to attend. I will send your husband up, Molly, dear. The two of you have a reception to get ready to"

Voldemort made his way to the dungeons to find Severus and Lucius teaching Harry and the Weasleys how to cast a perfect _Crucio_ spell. The two remaining order members were bruised and bleeding on the floor.

"Severus! Lucius! You started without me! How rude" he said mockingly.

"No, my lord, we haven't asked a single question yet. We were just passing time and teaching our friends here a few 'new' spells" answered Lucius as Snape corrected Arthur's wand movement.

"Well, them, I think it's time for us to begin… but first, Lucius, your wife just came up with the perfect explanation for a few things that happened tonight" said the Dark Lord before putting the man apart of what had been decided upstairs.

Arthur was against it, he wanted to stay and 'help interrogate' the men who had killed his son, but Harry and the others convinced him otherwise. They also promised to wait until he, Harry and the twins returned to actually start asking questions. What helped a great deal in convincing him.

Draco was stunned. He would have never expect to see any of the Weasleys so at easy with the Dark Lord, or anybody else for that matter, much less Harry bloody Potter, but there it was, they were all getting along brilliantly.

More than that. Harry was Snape's son and the Dark lord's grandson, what made him a very interesting life partner, even Lucius would agree. Harry was switching sides and now they could be friends or maybe even more, ok, so he was grieving over the death of his boyfriend, nothing that time and a friendly shoulder to cry on wouldn't cure. Not a problem, now he knew he had the time and the chance of pursuing Potter, he could wait and play his game the way he liked it… knowing that in the end he would win.

Now there was something he could grow very much used to.

----------

A few days later, Harry was sitting in his bed at Grimmauld place, Shadow sleeping in the pillow next to him. They had just returned from Ron's funeral and he felt numb, not even the knowledge that Mrs. Malfoy's plan had worked flawlessly help improve his mood.

Mr. Weasley had his promotion, Ginny was going to France in a couple of days, the prophet was, for once, printing things the way they wanted, Dumbledore was convinced, Hermione was hitting on him discreetly and Remus was on their side.

He never did find out what exactly Trelaway had said to him, but it seemed to have worked and now all the pieces were falling in to their places.

Snape had returned badly beaten and telling everyone he was able to convince Voldemort he was not a spy, Pettigrew, he said, was dead, but he had no idea why, he did, however caught a glimpse of mad-eye-moody, Mundungus and Kingsley chained to a wall, but he was too weak to do anything at the time. That last piece of information had left Dumbledore quite worried.

Trelaway was still missing, but they had no reason to bring up her name in any conversation, so no one talked about it.

Harry was brought out of his thought by an common looking owl bringing him a letter. He took the letter and read it twice before destroying it with a smile on his face.

"Tomorrow begins faze two of our plan" he said to Shadow.

"Is that good?"

"Oh, that is the best, wait and see. Absolutely the best"

**Chapter 18 - The Illusion**

Harry made his way through the Ministry with Dumbledore, Remus and Hermione. Fudge was determined to regain some popularity by putting on a big show of just how much he was working to bring Ronald Weasley's assassins to justice… and of course, his first suspect was Harry. That was way Harry found himself at the Ministry just one day after Ron's funeral.

"_Good old Fudge. You would think that after so long he would at least learn not to make such a huge PR mistake, I mean, come on, bring the grieving best friend/boyfriend for questioning the day after the funeral and 'leaking' to the press the fact that he considers me a suspect! Not to mention the fact that the whole wizard world knows I'm here today, great security job_"

Harry notice Tonks standing near by and smiled at her. She smile at him back a tad nervous and Harry signed, she had an important role to play today, that was a lot at stake for her and Remus and nothing could go wrong. Today's stunt would have to be flawless.

Harry remembered the letter he received not 24 hours ago with the details of what would happen today. It was risky, but nobody wanted to endure the alternative. Family was too important.

_"Dear Harry. _

I wish I could have been with you at today's ceremony, but we all know we are forced to wait until our present situation is solved one way or the other. I just want you to remember that my thoughts are with you always. I also wish you could have more time to grief, but we need to haste with our plans doe to a small complication, nothing bad, rest assured, but it is something that demands our attention rather sooner than latter.

This letter is fairly safe and it is spelled to look like a mere condolence letter from one of your fans, but it would be wise to read alone or in the presence of our trusted friends only.

As for the matter at hand. It appears our werewolf friend has been busy and now the Wizard World has a new family on the making. Which presents a hole new problem, you see, our steamed ministry has passed a law stating that werewolfs are not allowed to have children… some nonsense about passing the curse on. Totally impossible, the child will be human, only with stronger senses and instincts, but because of that law the werewolf's girlfriend will be forced to… dispose of her child. It is needless to say that both of them are very distress over the matter and asked us for our help, which will be given tomorrow at the ministry. What can I say? It will be a blast, just stay out of the way.

You will, however, be needed to establish confidence on the soon to be the new member of the Order of the Phoenix. The meeting will take place at muggle book store outside the Leaky Caldron, with my position as a spy compromised the old fool will be looking for a new set of eye inside the inner circle. All you need to do is make sure he gets the attention of the right person. Don't over do it.

I have the utmost thrust on you, my son. In spite of everything I have said in the past years, and I know everything will be fine. I'll be waiting to hear from you as soon as possible and, please, do remember to burn this letter as soon as you finish reading it.

Love,

Your father.

PS: The seer sends her regards. What do you think, should I invite her for dinner one of these nights? I do feel the need to thank her for reuniting us.

Harry was brought out of his thoughts by a sickening sweet voice.

"Well, well, Mr. Potter. In trouble again, hummm?" said Umbridge walking up to them in the hallway "It appears you are always in need to come to the ministry to explain yourself"

"Well, of course I do, the ministry is not competent enough to perform a simple task and add two and two together, so I always have to come here and show you the wrong of your ways, not that Fudge has enough brain power to comprehend the facts at any case"

"Why you…" Umbridge's face was purple and she pointed her wand at Harry before she could control herself. A flash of light cought her attention. Rita Skeeter and a photographer from the Daily Prophet were standing not five feet away from them.

"Madame Umbridge, why does the ministry feels necessary to have a wand pointed at Mr. Potter? Can a sixteen year old present such a threat?" and before Umbridge could recompose herself enough to answer Rita has turned to Harry "Mr. Potter, why were you called here? Is it true that you are being charged with your boyfriend's murder? How do you feel about being accused without any evidence again? Are you…"

"Wait, Rita, Darling. How about another exclusive?" Harry could see Umbridge turning a deeper shade of purple at the mere suggestion of an interview, he could clearly remember her reactions to the one he had given the year before. So could she, apparently "Now, that wouldn't be fair of me. Would it? I should wait for the other reporters that are dieing for an interview also…"

Harry could see Umbridge start to sweat.

"Mr. Potter, I do believe the minister is waiting for you, perhaps we should…" but Harry cut her before she could go any further.

"Yes, the ministry. Tell me Mrs. Umbridge, why does the minister finds so important to interrogate me about an attack that I did not witness and where I lost someone who was dearly important to me? And since we are talking about that what security measures did he take to ensure the safety of a minor, namely me, who is a main target for the Death Eaters and had to leave the safety of my house and answer to his accusations of murdering my boyfriend on a, thanks to him, very public event?"

"Well, Mr. Potter, I would hardly call your interrr… interview with the minister, just a friendly interview, a public event…"

"Really?" asked Harry holding the Daily Prophet in front of her, the head line said: _Potter will be escorted to the ministry of magic today to explain the murder of Ron Weasley_.

"I assure you that this place has the highest security…"

"Yeah, yeah… I've heard that one before, and my… interview with the minister is not suppose to happen for another 20 minutes. Rita, how about that interview?" said Harry offering his arm to the reporter who could not hide her surprise or her pleasure while taking his arm and walking away from Umbridge, who ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the lifts and disappeared.

Remus was openly laughing while Dumbledore's eyes twinkle like mad. He was quite pleased with Harry. The boy had been nothing but respectful and obedient to him, Mr. Weasley's death had left him too fragile too argue with Dumbledore about anything, but his attitude at the ministry had shown that he was not broken, just back under Dumbledore's control like he should had been all the time. Yes. Dumbledore was quite happy indeed.

Hermione sat at Harry's side while he talked to the reporter. She was also happy, Harry was accepting her presence and support, even seeking her out to talk. Pretty soon he would turn to her looking for comfort now that Ron was out of the picture. Hermione smiled and took Harry's hand pretending to support him while he answered the questions. Everything was going as planed.

Harry had been sitting there for less than 3 minutes before Fudge simply appeared out of nowhere with Umbridge at his side.

"Mr. Potter, It came to my attention we are having a little misunderstanding" he said with a large fake smile.

"Is that so, sir?" asked Harry raising an eyebrow.

Rita Skeeter saw an opportunity to jump in and get her scoop.

"Mr. Fudge, how do you answer the many accusations the ministry has been receiving of trying to incriminate Harry Potter of any crime it can find in order to diverge the publics attention from the fact that so far no a single Death Eater has been arrested ever since the return of the Dark Lord other than the ones Mr. Potter delivered himself?"

That was all it took for all hell to break loose. All of the sudden all the grown ups were yelling at each other and Dumbledore was trying to get them all to shut up and listen, but Fudge and Umbridge were not listening to anybody and were voicing quite loudly the virtues of the ministry while Rita Skeeter's questions became more and more daring.

Harry got up to his feet and turned to Hermione.

"Hermione, let's go. They are not paying attention to us right now and I really need to get away for a while"

"Harry, I don't know…" said Hermione looking at the group arguing a few feet away.

"Don't you want to spend an afternoon with me in muggle London?" Harry said with a smile holding out his hand to her.

Hermione blinked and considered her options for half a second before smiling at him and taking his hand. They ran to the ministry's exit and in a few minutes they were in a cab driving away.

Harry and Hermione spend the whole day walking around muggle London and getting to know the city. Harry bought himself a camera and decided to "immortalize" what he called "their day off". Eventually Harry manage to "discover" a small café where he convinced Hermione to sit for awhile and eat something.

He and Draco nodded at each other and Harry made sure Hermione sat facing the blond wizard.

Sure enough it took less than a minute for Hermione to notice a couple sitting a few tables away and recognize Draco Malfoy. The silver blond teen was kissing a pretty brunette and complete ignoring the rest of the restaurant.

"Oh, God! Harry, look it's Malfoy… with a muggle!"

Harry pretended to look shocked and surprised. Inside he was laughing, everything was going according to the plan.


End file.
